This Week's Sermons

Sermons for the Month
"Have a Wonderful Life"
DATE: August 16, 1998
SERVICE: Pentecost XI
TEXT: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

In the "Dear Diary" section of The New York Times recently, a woman (Johanna Hurwitz) wrote in about our "changing times." She noticed the salutation "Have a nice day" no longer seems adequate for many people. In one morning alone, three different people -- a woman behind the counter at the post office, a man in the dry-cleaning store and a vendor selling her a sesame bagel -- concluded their transaction with "Have a wonderful day." She went on to conclude, "I'll do my best" (Ron Alexander, "Metropolitan Diary," December 17, 1997, B3).
As we were flying back home from vacation, I chanced to read an article in the airline magazine they tuck into every seatback on the plane. In an article on business trends, I chanced to read that one of these trends appears to be the need to regain a sense of spirituality in our busy, bustling, bursting-at-the-seams postmodern pre-Christian lives. The author notes that businesses that feature "wonder" in their product have a greater chance for success.
Has "wonder" become yet another chore we are asked to add on to our daily "Things to Do" list. The somewhat cynical phrase, "Been there; done that" suggests that our current insatiable appetite to seek new experiences rarely satisfies our never-ending quest to find lasting meaning for our lives. The closer the 21st century gets, the more I find this quest for meaning being written about in all sorts of magazines. However, after I read these articles I seem to always be left with, "But we can't quite seem to get it right."
Wonder, by its very nature, cannot be programmed into our Day-Timer. It is not something that you go out and do or find or manufacture. Genuine wonder stops your heart, sucks away your breath, robs you of your speech, and freezes you in your tracks. Genuine wonder strikes your psyche without warning and flattens your cool consciousness with a sucker punch. Having just returned from a vacation that included stops in two exotic locations, the wonder of God's creation would literally overwhelm when me when I least expected it. A sunset over the Caribbean is now a screen saver on my computer. A picture of a Hawaii volcano is now in my scrap book. I can remember a few years ago, cross-country skiing through a pine forest just south of Peninsula. The air was crisp, the sun bright, and the sky blue. There was one section I can still close my eyes and see. It had a cathedral quality to it. The trail straightened through rows of evergreens on either side. The snow hung on to the branches and the air hung thick with silence. I stood there for a moment just drinking in the beauty of the scene.
In the last century, we adult homo sapiens have let increasing cynicism and demystifying "scientism" erode our sense of wonder. We have been content to relegate wonderment to the experiences of the young and naive. It is true that in youth we are much more alive to the wonders that surround us. Ever try to take a puppy for a walk? It takes forever. Not only does the puppy naturally resist the tug of the leash, but it must stop and pounce on every leaf on the sidewalk, investigate every stick in the path, track every bug that crawls along, and of course smell every inch of the earth. One of the joys of being a grandparent is to just sit and watch with renewed enthusiasm the wonder of life as seen through the fresh eyes of a grandchild. Our cliché "Been there; done that" can not help but fade away in the face of innocent eyes beholding a new found mystery. For them "All is new; all is wonderful."
In the 16th and 17th centuries, among the most prized pieces of furniture well-off families maintained were "wonder cabinets." These were simply knickknack shelves, but dedicated to displaying collections of natural wonders. Our ancestors used to go what they called "marveling" in the world. They would go "marveling" and come back with unique butterflies. They would go "marveling" and come back with four-leaf clovers. They would go "marveling" and come back with shimmering seashells. They would put the triumphs of their "marvelings" in their wonder cabinets. Our ancestors also went "marveling" in the realm of the human. The "wonders" of nature sat in the wonder cabinets alongside human curiosities such as Egyptian hieroglyphs and even human "horns" for the marveling of all. Wonder cabinets were like momentary museums to the miraculous, giving their owners the chance for a daily dose of wonderment and marveling. I would suppose the closest thing to that we do today is picture taking. Unfortunately, most of our pictures end up in boxes or scrapbooks in closets.
When is the last time you went "marveling"? I would suspect few of us have wonder cabinets in our homes any longer. However, you might still find them in your child's room. They might be in the form of a shoebox or wooden treasure chest like this one I had growing up. Perhaps we adults don't have them because we feel we are too sophisticated, too worldly, too consumed to give into such nonsense.
A genuine sense of wonder is born when we cultivate an openness to all that cannot be understood, which can scarcely be believed. Bernal Diaz, who accompanied Cortes on the conquest of Mexico and subsequently recorded the adventure in his The Conquest of New Spain, at one point similarly recalls the Spaniards' first spellbound vision of the Aztec capital: "Gazing on such wonderful sights, we did not know what to say, or whether what appeared before us was real" (Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder [New York: Pantheon, 1995], 80-81).
Just as in the natural world there are occasions and occupants that evoke a sense of wonder, there are in the spiritual world similar moments for examining and exclaiming over wonderments. In this week's text, the Hebrews' author collects in his wonder cabinet two types of wonder-full faithfulness. First, he looks at the mighty works God was able to accomplish through the faithfulness of those such as Moses, Joshua and Rahab. This list of divine accomplishments through faithful followers is so extensive that the author finally gives up on producing an itemized list. The other type of wonder full faithfulness our text speaks of is the faith kept by those persecuted, tortured and martyred. Truly such steadfast faithfulness is as awe-inspiring as the parting of the Red Sea, the collapsing walls of Jericho, or the deliverance of the land of Canaan into the hands of the Israelites. A martyr's faith is indeed a wonder. Who can cease being amazed at what men and women can accomplish, can endure, can turn to triumph, when they live by faith and not by sight?
Perhaps you saw the 1995 movie Braveheart, a film that won several Academy Awards. It is the story of William Wallace, a Scottish common man who fought for his country's freedom from English rule in the 13th century. Wallace led an uprising against the cruel English ruler Edward the Longshanks, who wanted the crown of Scotland for himself. In the end, Wallace was martyred for the freedom cause.
In his final moments of life, as he lay on the executioner's bench, Wallace was tortured horribly. Watching the torture being inflicted left many viewers with a sense of wonder and awe that a person could hold on to his principles in the face of such pain. He could have ended the torment by saying the word "peace," indicating his acquiescence to Edward's ambitions. Instead, Wallace yelled, "Freedom!"
In the 16th century, Bibles were "chained" books -- literally chained to church walls and posts so that over-zealous parishioners would not make off with them. They were often chained together with Fox's Book of Martyrs -- a grisly, gory, gruesome retelling in print and pictures, words and woodcuts of some of the most horrific tales of Christian martyrdom. (If the truth were told, it was actually Fox's sensational book more than the Bible that was in danger of being ripped off by eager readers.) Fox's work was known as "Acts and Monuments," i.e., "Wonders of God," reminding readers that it was the enduring faith of the martyrs, not the singular fate they suffered, which was the reason they were remembered and honored by the church. Likewise, the author of Hebrews does not glory in the torments and deaths suffered by the martyrs he showcases. Rather he displays them so we may wonder at their faithfulness, their single-minded commitment to God and the growing of his kingdom. Can you wonder at the supernatural as well as the natural world?
We in the Lutheran church do not have to go far to find a singular person of faith. Martin Luther, in his attempt not to destroy but to reform the church, was vilified, attacked, excommunicated and finally condemned to be burned at the stake. It would have been terribly easy for him to get along by just going along with the business of the church as usual. Yet it was the power of what he read in the Bible, about the wonder of how Jesus died that we might live with a greater sense of purposefulness, that put all else in his life second. More than once he was encouraged to compromise his principles, his faith, his witness. It is a wonder that he persevered. On June 16, 1998, the Roman Catholic Vatican affirmed that "a high degree of agreement has been reached" with the Lutheran Churches of the Lutheran World Federation which includes the ELCA. "For the first time since the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran churches have responded at the highest international levels to a commonly developed statement," said LWF General Secretary Ishmael Noko. "The very affirmation of 'a consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification' is a significant step forward in the relations between our churches." Even though this joint declaration does not resolve all points of difference between Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the doctrine of justification, it does conclude with the conviction that our differences "do not destroy the consensus of basic truths." In other words, as our national Bishop George Anderson said, "we have agreed that, when God deals with human beings, God says, "I love you,' and doesn't say, 'I'll love you if…." For me, what is the wonder is the number of people of good will on both sides who have been working for this moment for over 450 years. It is a wonder is not:
That Luther had such courage and stamina in the face of persecution. That Missionaries all over the world like the family we support in Kenya, the Schmalzles stand up for God when all the powers around them insist that they sit down.
That Christians discover the experience of pain and deprivation less than "the assurance of things hoped for" and "the conviction of things not seen" (11:1).
That good people of generations past, like a "great cloud of witnesses," surround us at all times with their testimony of faithfulness. In June and again in July, Linda and I went to family reunions. One of the most important parts of such days are the moments set aside for remembering, remembering those who are no longer there, remembering past reunions, remembering stories of earlier times and gifted kindnesses. It is also a time when we share current stories of the family, of accomplishments made and failures endured, of faith in the future, the young and of God. The stories continue to intertwine into a woven pattern of past and present life. As I listen and tell our own, I am given to marvel that somehow, in some mysterious way, I am connected to all these stories. I am not alone. We are family.
The last Sunday in July, you celebrated with me the first twenty-five years of my ministry. In another sense, however, I celebrated with you 16 plus years of our ministry together. In a very real sense, we became a great cloud of witnesses to what being part of the family of God really means. And the stories that were told were mostly all true. I am grateful that you have allowed me to be a part, if only in a small way, of your individual and collective stories as well. You are all wonders of God's creation.
The wonder of last Sunday, the wonder of our joint Roman Catholic/Lutheran declaration, the wonder of Martin Luther, the wonder of the martyrs of the kingdom can spring from only one source if it is to be truly a wonder—the wonder of Jesus Christ. The wonder of Jesus Christ is his faith in us, his trust in us that we will welcome every stranger into our community of hope and life.
Have a Wonder-full day.
Have a Wonder-full week.
Have a Wonder-full life.
For you indeed have a wonderful God.

AMEN