Faith In Necessity

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

May 8, 2011

Luke  24:13-35

Mother’s Day

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

I own two cats.  They have taught me many things.  I suppose this is why I own them, because they are my teachers.  One thing the cat teaches me is that the cat is always right.  The second rule is that the cat gets what the cat wants.  The third rule is that the cat does not know what the cat wants.   Take going in and going out for an example.  Does the cat want to go out?  Yes.  Does the cat want to come back in?  Yes.  The cat universe seems to be governed by a law of necessity.  According to the cat, things just ARE the way they ARE, and there is no debate, no discussion, and no ambiguity.  Likewise, when things ARE the way they ARE, that means things will change so as to be another way. 

There are other necessities which will also govern the way we live.  Murphy’s Law is one such necessity.  Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and it will go wrong at the worst possible time.  Murphy’s Law for construction; “It will take longer, cost more, and be more complicated than you thought.”  Murphy’s Law for Investment; “The investment you did not make will perform better than the one you did make.”  Murphy’s Law for grass and fences; “The grass really IS greener on the other side of the fence and you really can’t get there from here.”  Murphy’s Law for parenting; “Yes this really IS YOUR CHILD!”  I was watching a girl take her final exam this week in one of my classes at Edgecombe Community College.  She was a pretty little 17 year old girl.  What I noticed about her was her fingernails.  She hat meticulously painted them, very carefully manicured them so as to look exactly like she had black grease under her fingernails.  

One of the greatest mysteries of life is the way some things simply must happen.  I call this the law of necessity.  The force of gravity tells us that whatever goes up must come back down again.  Seasons must change, and as we witness the seasons changing, we must change with them.  Children must grow up, and grown ups must grow old.  Along the way, we must have times of sorrow and we must have times of joy.  We must have our ups and our downs.  By the power of God and in the nature of God all things must be exactly as they are when they are that way.  This is not to say that we do not have absolute freedom of choice to change the way things are in any given moment.  We have an unlimited power of choice, it is just that there are moments when we can see how our choices are themselves governed by an overarching force of necessity which is the will of God.  Within that larger framework of necessity we change things and do things or refuse to do things, but all the while we labor within a larger structure of necessity.  If we accept that larger structure of necessity, the mystery of the way things are, we will be at peace.  If we reject that structure of necessity we will be in conflict.  Most of the time, we move between those extremes of accepting everything and rejecting everything.  We move and live our lives between the poles of acceptance and rejection, peace and conflict.  Some days are better than others, but we always need to struggle to figure out what exactly we will accept and what we will reject about the way things are.  If someone really bothers me should I speak to them about it or should I let it go?  If something bothers me should I work to change it or should I accept it?  How do I decide what needs to be let go of and what needs to be dealt with? 

We have all heard the great Serenity Prayer sometimes attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr. “Lord, grant me the courage to change those things which I am able to change.  Grant me the serenity to accept those things which I am unable to change.  And grant me the wisdom to know the difference.” 

We are all obligated to struggle to find our way through those two choices.  Will we accept what has happened to us, or will we struggle to change what will happen in the future.  What will we accept and what will we change? 

When the two disciples met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, they were similarly confused.  They had hoped that the Prophet, Jesus of Nazareth would be the one to redeem Israel.  They thought he was the Messiah, and the Messiah would change everything for the better.  But then he was killed.  They met a stranger who said to them; “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  (Luke 24:26)  When I read this verse, I see the whole life story of Jesus, the whole passion and resurrection story as being covered by necessity.  Like the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, like the wind blows from one side of the horizon to the other, these things had to take place.  I also see the same sense of absolute necessity governing the events of my life and the events of our world today.  Somehow it all seems to be necessary and in that necessity I find salvation.  If we look back on our lives, as difficult as they might have been, what would we change?  What would we have done differently.  Superficially, we might have all sorts of regrets, and things we wish we could have gone back and changed, but these are simply superficial aspects of life.  Most of the time we understand and we accept that things had to be the way they are for us to be who we are today. 

I recently looked at how the idea of necessity is presented in the scriptures.  In Luke 9:22, Jesus says; “The Son of Man must suffer many things.”  Luke 17:25, Jesus said; “For as the lightening flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day, but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” 

John 20:9, “For as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” 

John 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” 

In teaching about the end of times, Jesus says; “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”  (Matthew 24:6) 

In Revelation, John begins the book by saying; “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his servants what must soon take place.”  Later John hears a voice from heaven saying; “Come up here, (into the heavens,) and I will show you what must happen after these things.” 

In First Corinthians 15:53 Paul says; “This perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.” 

Jesus also says this about us in his conversation with Nicodemus.  “You must be born again.” 

According to these scriptures, from the grand events of our world to the small events of our lives, from the resurrection of Jesus to our being born again, everything is guided by a wonderful divine necessity.  It all must be the way that it is if we are going to be able to wake up and see the wonderful mystery of the way things are.  Even our urges to move and shake things up, even our desire to change things for the better is under this umbrella which is the perfect will of Almighty God. 

The scripture that comes closest to sorting it all out for me is from Ecclesiastes where Solomon says; “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”   (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  Some days we will struggle, and God will bless that struggle as long as we struggle in faith.  Other days we will be in peaceful acceptance.  In faith God will bless that Shalom we feel.  Some days we will press against the necessity of things.  Some days we will put our foot down and say; “No my dear, you can’t go out of the house looking like that!”  Other days it will be OK.  Sometimes we will insist that changes need to be made.  Other times we will let things be as they are.  This is the dance we must follow as we live. 

What is important is that we get the message along the way.  The message is SALVATION.  Salvation beckons us in the struggles and in the moments of peace.  Salvation is the calling we have to live, to truly live in the presence and the love of God.  The question is not if we will win or lose the wars which make up the details of our lives.  The question is if we will truly live for God as we go through the process.  This is what I mean when I suggest that we can find salvation underneath the umbrella of God’s necessity.  Through all the struggles God is telling us God loves us.  God invites us to enlightenment.  God invites us to live eternally in God’s grace.  God forgives all of the mistakes we make as we try to decide what to accept and what to change.  You see, we can’t always make those decisions the right way.  Sometimes we will try desperately to change what can’t be changes.  Likewise we will be guilty of accepting those things we really should have changed.  We will fall short one way or another.  In God’s grace though we can see how Jesus covers it all.  God understands the compunction of things.  God understands the necessity because God designed the necessity in the mystery of God’s will.  Our task is to wake up and to rise toward the light in the middle of it all. 

YES, the cat want’s out.  YES, the cat want’s in, YES, the kid painted her fingernails black.  But you just gotta love it.  Happy Mother’s Day.  Amen.