Some bright morning when this life is over I'll fly away. To that home

Transcription

1 Earth is My Home Acts 4:34-35, There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Some bright morning when this life is over I'll fly away. To that home on God's Celestial shore I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away. In the morning when I die, Hallelujah by and by I'll fly away. When the shadows of this life have gone I'll fly away. Like a bird from these prison walls I'll fly, I'll fly away. Just a few lines from a hymn written back in Some folks say it s the most recorded Gospel song of all time. And it s no wonder. It sounds very pretty. And there s something extremely comforting about it, perhaps even more today than ever before. Let s face it, there s a great deal of talk about culture wars in America. On the one hand there are those who argue that the United States is a Christian nation at its very heart, at its core, a country founded on Christian principles. These are the folks who want America to return to the cultural Christianity so universal in during the 1950s. It s so easy to forget that it was only 70 years ago that In God We Trust became America s official motto. On the other hand, there are those who want Christianity scrubbed away entirely. They view it as a repressive religion, one that inhibits liberty, individuality, and freedom of expression. These are the folks who are pushing back against every traditional moral standard, who go out of their 1

2 way to live lives that the opposition would describe as immoral. According to most Christian experts on American culture, the war is over. And we ve lost. But Hallelujah by and by I ll fly away. Oh there are plenty of other things that can sink us Christians into despair. Just consider the all the unrest and chaos in this country and in the world at large natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, political scandal, drug epidemics, homelessness, domestic abuse, school shootings. The world s a mess. It s getting worse, just like Jesus said that it would. But Hallelujah by and by, I ll fly away. These are just some of the things that make that Gospel song so popular. It resonates with us. It strikes a chord deep inside, and reminds us that ultimately, we don t really have to worry about any of the world s troubles. We don t really have to be concerned about it at all. In the end, we re just traveling through this world. Heaven is our home. And we re just passing through. So what do we care if the ship sinks. God s gonna send a life-raft for us anyway. Hallelujah by and by, I ll fly away. I imagine that s pretty much what the disciples were thinking too. Now they ve seen the risen Jesus... all of them except Thomas, anyway. They know He s back from the dead and they re just beginning to understand what it all means. But the one thing they know for certain is this Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be! He is the messiah. He is the Christ. He is the 2

3 King. And if He s King, His promises are good. They will be part of His Kingdom. They will spend eternity with Him. They will sit on twelve thrones and judge the tribes of Israel just as He said! So what do they do in response to that news? They sit. They wait. They lock themselves in a room and stay there. They shut the door on the world. They lock it out of their lives entirely. They want nothing to do with the chaos and brokenness of that horrible fallen world out there. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, they know what the future holds for them. They re heaven-bound, baby! Let this ship sink! Jesus has a life boat standing by. They re just waiting to be released from the prison of this world so that, hallelujah, by and by, they can fly away. Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, mathematician, and historian among other things. He once wrote, I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race I am ashamed to belong to such a species. You and I shake our heads and wonder at someone so unbelievably jaded. Obviously we could not state our opposition to this comment strongly enough. And yet... often our actions are more closely aligned with Russell s comment than we d like to think. 3

4 How many Christians, do you suppose, stay home on Election Day, figuring it s all going to hell in a hand basket anyway. How many Christians do you suppose shut their eyes to the homeless, the starving, the drug addicted, the beggar on the street corner, figuring that they re probably not worth helping? How many Christians do you suppose treat the earth like a trash can because it s going to be destroyed anyway? How many Christians do you suppose continually neglect the emotional and spiritual needs of their own family, but smile that one day, they ll go to heaven, so none of it matters. When Jesus was standing trial before Pontius Pilate, He made a statement that has been cause of countless books and debates and errors. Pilate asks Jesus if He s a king and Jesus says, My Kingdom is not of this world. We have taken that phrase and twisted it, and bent it to mean what we want it to mean. Jesus says My Kingdom is not of this world, but we force into His mouth something like, My Kingdom has nothing to do with this world. I have come to take you out of this world. Have no dealings with this world. Let this world eat itself up. Hate this world. That s where the disciples are in that room. They sat there, stewing in their hatred, hating, not the sinfulness of this world, but the very world itself. They hated the cruel world that put their Lord to death, and now that He was back, now that their future was secure, they were ready to just wait it out. They were free to sit behind that locked door, hating the world, 4

5 wishing to destroy it, or for lack of strength at least happy to abandon it to destroy itself in sin. They were a bunch of Jonahs, excited at the prospect of Nineveh s destruction. Hallelujah, by and by, I ll fly away. But in this locked up room removed from the world, Jesus manifests Himself again. He simply appears as He did earlier, only this time Thomas is with them. Once again He starts off by saying, Peace be with you! And then He goes to Thomas. He stretches out His hands toward the disciple in a gesture of invitation. He invites that unbelieving one to dig his finger in the nail holes, to thrust his hand into the spear wound. Jesus is back from the dead and this is no spiritual resurrection. It is a resurrection of the body! In this physical, bodily resurrection we see God restoring the creation, the physical, material stuff of His broken world. Jesus resurrection was not a rejection of this world or a rescue from it. It was a radical affirmation of this world. At last the disciples begin putting the pieces together. We see in our reading from Acts what it looks like when they finally get it. Luke tells us that... the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common... There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. The disciples have left the room. 5

6 They ve given up their hatred of the world. The fish has puked them up on the shore and they walk the streets of Nineveh. They re diving into this world with reckless abandon! It s such a huge mistake that we Christians make. We think of Christianity as a pie-in-the-sky, ghostly religion. We imagine that Jesus primary objective was to help us not to worry so much about things, to take us out of the turmoil of this world and give us wings, a robe, and a harp. That is a lie that Satan desperately wants us to buy. Satan wants you to abandon the world, because he doesn t want the Holy Spirit in you anywhere near the people he s crushed. But Christianity is not an ethereal religion. Jesus purpose is not simply to hold your hand when you re sad. In fact, I ll go farther than that. Christianity is not a spiritual religion. At least not the way most people think of it. It s not spiritual. It s of the Holy Spirit, who draws us, not out of this world, but radically into it. He does not encourage us to fly like a bird from these prison walls. He drives us straight into it! He calls us to go and proclaim to the fallen creation that through Jesus, God will restore what our sin has broken. That is why Jesus did not come back as a ghost, but as a body. It s not as if He borrowed a human body just long enough to die in it. It s not as if He used it for a bit and tossed it in the can when He was done with it. No, 6

7 God became human as an affirmation of His creation and of this world. After all, what higher honor could God pay to human beings than to become one Himself? In Jesus, God embraces this world. And He calls you to do the same. You are a spouse. You are a parent, a grandparent, a brother or sister in Christ. You are a neighbor. You are in a position to help another. You are in a position to help the homeless, the sick, to comfort the grieving, to encourage the downcast, to speak forgiveness, and life, and hope in Jesus! Don t shut the world out. Don t sit back and sing about flying away. Unbolt the door, swing it wide, and embrace this broken world. By your words and actions, show the world that what the Bible says is true that in Christ Jesus, God was reconciling the world to Himself. God intends to use you as His instrument to do it. Amen. 7