A Resurrection: "What Now?"
Stand firm in faith"
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Marie Wilson was one of twelve people killed by an IRA bomb in Northern Ireland. It was the 1987, Enniskillen - Remembrance Day bombing. In an interview with the BBC, her father Gordon Wilson described with anguish the aftermath of what took place.
We were both thrown forward, rubble and stones and whatever were in and around, over and under us. I was aware of a pain in my right shoulder. I shouted to Marie, “Are you alright?” She said, “Yes.” She found my hand and said, “Is that your hand, Dad?” We were under six feet of rubble. I said again, “Are you all right?” and she said, “Yes,” but she was shouting in between. Three or four times I asked her, and she always said “Yes, I am alright.” When I asked her the fifth time, “Are you all right, Marie?” she said, “Daddy, I love you very much.” Those were the last words she spoke to me.
Gordon's wife, Joan, told the BBC in another interview just last year (2008) of the scene at the hospital later that day. She described the “ordered chaos” of the place and it was hours later before she was taken into Marie's room. Marie had had extended surgery on her brain, was failing badly and was hooked up to life support when Joan walked in. Joan held Marie's hand. “It was cold,” she said, “her heart was barely beating and, as I stood there, Marie's life just ebbed away and she passed over to be with her heavenly Father.”
In the interview, her earthly father gave just after the event, in 1987, Gordon Wilson said, “The hospital was magnificent, truly impressive, and our friends have been great. I miss my daughter and we shall miss her… She's in heaven, and we'll meet again.”
I will come back to this story for something in it led to a truly remarkable thing in the history of the Northern Ireland troubles. For now, however, let us note the tremendous statements of faith from a very ordinary, but Christian, family. Joan was the organist, Gordon a regular attendee at the local Methodist Church in the town. In the midst of what must have been great pain, a mother says, “Marie passed over to be with her heavenly Father.” A father says, “She's in heaven, and we'll meet again.” What powerful statements of faith. This is exactly what the apostle Paul has been trying to get across to Christians in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Christ has risen. He has paved the way for all who will come after him (15:20). “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed… then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' … But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor.15:51-52; 54-57).”
That really is a “knock your socks of kind of belief.” It is radical, “foolishness to the world” Paul says elsewhere, but Paul was so sure of what he had seen and heard and touched with his hands that he gave his life to passing on the good news. Think, for a moment, what it would have been like if you had been there. Close your eyes and put yourself in that space. Imagine being there, imagine seeing Jesus die on the cross, imagine seeing his lifeless body in the tomb, imagine being with the disciples grieving over the loss of the one they thought would be the messiah and save Israel. Imagine, then, seeing him alive again … it would be good news. It would be great news! Incredible! It would have been news so fantastic that you would not have been able to stop talking about it. And that is exactly what Paul and the others did. They knew it to be a real experience, the defeat of death, the victory of God, the beginnings of eternal life. After talking about it one more time in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul utters one little word that is very important, “therefore.” “Therefore,” he says, “as a result of” this resurrection, “as a consequence of” the glorious future that is to come; “be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
There are two tasks here for the Christian set in the context of what God has done for us. The first is to “be steadfast” or “stand firm.” Paul doesn't expand and we may well ask, “stand firm” in what? We are missing a referent here but if we compare the uses of the Greek word here with other uses of it in the NT, we will find that it is not a word that is used often, but when it is, it is often in the context of the faith or the good news. Paul means “stand firm in the faith,” “stand firm in the good news;” do not let anything or anyone lead you from this truth.
Paul knew, you see, that there are things that can pull a person away from God and the faith. We know from the NT itself that there were other world views, philosophies, and beliefs vying for the hearts of the people, just like today. We know from the NT that there were those who had come to faith at one point in their lives and later had sought after something new and different. Paul was concerned for them. He had the same concern as the author of The Epistle to the Hebrews who constantly urged believers to “be steadfast,” “hold fast,” “do not turn from the good news that you have heard,” lest you drift away and lose out.
What we find then in the NT is a great concern for truth. There was not the belief that there were many ways to God, as is popular today. There was one way, and it all focussed on what God had actually done, this incredible experience that people around Jesus had had. Paul says, “Stay close to that. Do not be distracted. Keep going. Be faithful.” And there were many that were faithful and passed on the faith. And there were those who followed them and passed it on to the next generation, and the next, and the next, and so it has come down to us and we too are asked to commit ourselves to it.
It is not easy, there are many things today that can distract us. It is an ancient faith and some people wonder what it has to do with today, what has God done lately? We can be distracted also by things like materialism, a never-ending pursuit of leisure, the virtual worlds that technology has given us, endless entertainment, things that keeps us away from what is real. When we do get around to interacting with our world, we find that different religious traditions and world views are around us and they cause us to struggle with pluralism and what is true. And then there's simple peer-pressure. My daughter, for instance, told me recently that none of her friends go to church. One Sunday, while she was setting out for the church near her university residence, someone asked what she was doing and when she told them, her friends said, “What on earth would you want to do that for?”
There are roads that are easier to travel. There are roads on which we are not challenged. It is very easy to turn away from this ancient faith. But Paul says, “be steadfast, be immovable,” “hold on to that which you have heard from the beginning.”
I am reminded of that song that was used much in the 1960s and the days of the civil rights marches. “We shall not be moved.” It was sung at almost every parade and every march seeking some justice and equality for all. Sometimes there was bloodshed at these events. Sometimes security forces were given orders to move protesters and violence would erupt. Beaten and bloodied, they continued, “We shall not be moved,” for they knew that they were on the side of right and fairness and justice. They kept going until the whole of the American mindset was changed.
Paul is thinking along the same lines. He is encouraging Christians to hold on with that same tenacity. Being different than the mainstream did not make the civil rights movement wrong and being different does not make the Christian belief wrong. Hold on! Do not be moved!
Then Paul goes on with his second exhortation set in the context of all that God has done for us, “always excel in the work of the Lord,” he says. We should note here that Paul is addressing all the believers in Corinth when he says, “always excel in the work of the Lord.” He wasn't just writing to the leaders. One of the great myths that has been around the Church for many years is the notion that only clergy do the work of the Lord. From time to time, I will tell someone what I do, and they will say, “Ah, you're in the Lord's work,” as if you have to be ordained to do it. The reality is, however, that God calls all of us to serve wherever we are in life, in whatever situation, in whatever place. There are many ways in which we can do that.
The work of the Lord has many forms. On a spiritual level, Jesus has asked us to go a make disciples. It may involve outreach, evangelism, preaching, teaching, counselling, encouraging someone in Christian faith, or modeling the Christian life for others to see. St. Francis of Assisi once wrote, “Preach the gospel. If necessary use words.” The work of the Lord may be worship-oriented involving things like music, song, dance, art, writing, prayer and a host of other things that draw people onto God. At yet another level, the work of the Lord may be social in nature as we care for others and give to people in need and people who have fallen between the cracks of our health care and social systems. The work of the Lord includes so many things and Paul is saying, now that you know what Christ has done and that God is victorious over all things, help others in life and in faith.
And the force of this help needs to be brought out. The translation I use says , “excel in the work of the Lord”; or as another translation has it “give yourselves fully to…” The idea here is that we are not just to do the work of the Lord, but we are to go the extra mile in doing it. We are not just to be engaged in the Lord's work when we have a few spare minutes, but we are to be rich in the works of the Lord. We are not to be engaged in the work of the Lord because we think we ought to do a little something to ease our conscience, but we are to do it in abundance. We are to make it a part of who we are.
What I think that what Paul is driving at here can be summed up by the word “commitment.“ He is asking that we be fully committed in faith and in life to God and his good news. This is where I want to go back to the story of Gordon Wilson. Gordon was committed to his faith in Christ. He was a man who grew up in the church. I know the denominational school that he went to and I have friends who graduated from Wesley College in Dublin. I know the faith and culture that he grew up in, for it is the same one that I grew up in as did Timothy Eaton for whom this great church was named.
In the days after his 20 year old daughter tragically lost her life in the Remembrance Day bombing of 1987, Gordon Wilson grieved but he did something even in grief that altered the course of what have been called “the troubles” in Ireland. A few days after the bombing, he was interviewed on television and he reflected on his last moments with his daughter: “She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say.” But then Gordon Wilson went on and to the astonishment of a nation he said this, “But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. And I will pray for those men who did this, I will do it tonight and every night.”
Historian, Jonathan Bardon recounts, “No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland have had such a powerful, emotional impact.” Those are words of faith, words of committed faith, words that even in midst of tragedy and grief hold on to the promises of God so much that love and forgiveness can be offered to men bent on evil. Those kind of words can only come from a deep, deep place in the soul of a person who is steeped in faith. Gordon Wilson, even in tragedy, stood firm and his words set the stage for the peace process that came some years later.
Wilson did not see the peace process implemented for he died in 1995. In his remaining years, however, he gave himself to working for peace. He held meetings with the leaders of various paramilitary groups and asked them to lay down their arms. When he spoke to the IRA, he was ridiculed as “misguided” by militant protestants. He was ridiculed again for accepting a post in the senate of the Irish Republic where he thought he could continue his calling. But no amount of ridicule distracted him. He would not be moved. He was going to work for peace. He was a man who stood firm in his faith, a man who excelled in the work of the Lord for peace-making is the work of the Lord and even when placed in horrible circumstances he stepped up to the plate, worked for peace, knowing in his heart that labour in the Lord was not in vain. He may not have seen peace in his lifetime, but Gordon Wilson's words and actions were part of the groundwork that Tony Blair and others built on to bring peace in the Good Friday Agreement.
And so the word comes to us. We may not be called by such tragic circumstance, yet we are called to be ready. We may not understand all the things that go on around us, yet we are called to stand firm in faith. We may not have the same opportunities to serve as others, but we are called to commitment in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. We may, at times, wonder why, but we are called to remember that our labours in the Lord are never in vain. So let us go forth, buoyed by the victory of God, standing firm in his word and excelling in the work he calls us to.