ChristianOptimism
Sermon
HUMMING TILL THE MUSIC RETURNS
While waiting at an airport, years ago, I saw a couple in their thirties bring an older woman to her gate for an outbound flight. As they stood to say awkward good--byes the young man said, "Have a good time, Mother!"
She gave him a response I've never forgotten. "Now, John," she said, "you know perfectly well that I never enjoy having a good time!"
Does she sound like anyone you know?
Some people are like that. Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer, was asked to give a message to the young people of his day. "If I were a young person," he replied, "I think I'd chuck it all ... The odds are too great against you ... The sooner [you] jump out of a window, the sooner [you'll] find peace!"
That's the way life seems for some people. Existence is a burden, a daily pain, a test of endurance. These folks always see the dark side of things.
One writer tells of a man who was so ill--tempered, so impossible to please, that everyone around him lived in fear and trembling. His wife would gently ask him each morning how he wanted his eggs cooked. Just to be difficult, one day he said, "I want one fried and one scrambled!"
When she slid the eggs on to his plate he got angry, shouting, "You can't get anything right! You fried the wrong one!"
What a way to live!
Actually, it is really more of a way to die. Several researchers at Harvard University found that people who are pessimistic when in their twenties are more likely than others to be in poor health when they reach middle age. There were three reasons for this noted in the research results. First, pessimistic people usually don't take care of themselves, since they believe that they cannot prevent the bad things that they know are going to happen to them, no matter what. They give up trying to care, and just let themselves go to ruin.
Second, pessimistic people shut themselves off from friends and family. They go it alone, and the loneliness wears them down.
Third, pessimistic people feel helpless. They don't trust others. They don't have confidence in themselves. Similarly, according to the study, they don't truly believe in God. Even if they call themselves "religious," they don't believe that God can do anything to change the mess of this world or the chaos of their lives.
That is a tragedy! Christians are not sugarcoated optimists, of course, but they do have reason for a positive disposition. Perhaps not as positive as the hunter who bragged continually to his friends about his shooting skills, and then, when he emptied both barrels of his shotgun and the duck kept flying, said, "Wow! We just witnessed a miracle! There flies a dead duck!"
That may be optimism, but it is hardly in touch with reality.
Christian optimism does not ignore the evil and violence and suffering in this world. We know all too well the effects of sin and pride and racism. Yet a Christian can never become a pessimist, seeing only the dark side of the picture. Paul says that in these verses. The message of the gospel, he says, is a message of "Yes!" rather than "No!" because God is the God of the great "Yes!" of Jesus Christ.
This is the message he preached. This is the story that makes people stand up and say "Amen!" rather than jumping out of the window to their deaths. This is the message of the Holy Spirit, breathing in our hearts the guarantees of eternal love.
That is the heart of the gospel. It is the essence of the religion of the Bible. In fact, it is the main reason why we are here together this morning: not because we haven't seen any trouble, or because we don't know about tragedy, or because everything has gone our way in the past week; rather, we are here because God is bigger than any of our difficulties, and he fills us with joy.
That comes out in three ways in these verses.
God Lives
First, God lives. He is in control. Paul says the Corinthian Christians can count on his own words and deeds, "as surely as God is faithful."
There is life--changing optimism in that phrase. Richard Mouw tells how it came home to him one day in 1976 when he boarded a plane in New Jersey, bound for a speaking engagement in Texas. The man seated next to him was obviously wealthy, and just as obviously full of conversation. It was the week of the presidential primary in Texas, and this fellow had firm opinions that he was more than willing to share.
"Yep," he said with a Texas drawl, "this is going to be a good election for us! We're going to win this one!"
Cautiously Richard Mouw asked him who this "we" might be.
"Ronald Reagan, of course!" came the answer. "You see," he told Mouw, "I'm for oil, and Reagan is for oil, so oil is for Reagan, and so am I!"
It was all very clear to him. Richard Mouw wasn't in the mood for a political debate, so he just smiled, nodded, and turned to his book.
Then something caught his eye. The oil man opened his briefcase, took out a Bible, a legal pad, and a pen. For a long while he read his Bible, making notes and checking cross--references. Finally he stopped and thought for a long moment. He leaned over to Richard Mouw and tapped his arm. "Young man," he said, "I have to apologize to you."
Mouw couldn't think of any reason for such an apology, but the man went on. "Back there on the runway I told you I was for oil," he said. "But I'm a Christian. And I'm leading our Bible study at church this week. And we're going through the book of James. And James says that we have to live our faith. And I'm sorry that I told you I was for oil, because I'm not really for oil. I'm for Jesus Christ, and I have to vote in the way the Jesus would want me to vote."
Exactly!
It is in that kind of outlook of faith that a godly optimism is developed. In fact, without that perspective on life reality can seem very chaotic at best, and very oppressive at worst. Just today, for instance, a 22--year--old young husband called me to say that doctors have found a fourth tumor in his body. He goes for treatments next week. His bride is frantic. What kind of world is this that threatens a good man with death at such an early age?
In fact, Carl Jung, the great psychologist and student of human behavior, said, "Among all my patients in the second half of life ... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
He said of his patients that "every one of them fell ill because he lost a sense of divine purpose." Each fell apart because she or he lacked the optimism of faith to see her or him through the troubling times of life.
This is why Robert Browning's little verse continues to resonate with people who have a sense of religious optimism:
The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew--pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
"... as surely as God is faithful ..." says Paul. God lives, and the world turns round right.
God Laughs
That optimism comes through even more powerfully when Paul writes about the great "Yes!" of God. The way Paul writes about it brings a smile to our faces. In fact, he says, when God's "Yes!" is heard in this world, people say, "Amen!"
The "Yes!" of God carries with it the connotations Ibsen often put in his debates. Typically he would listen to the various sides of an argument, countered back and forth, and then, time and again, he would begin his answer with the simple word "Nevertheless ..."
It was as if he were saying, "I hear what you said ..." or "I know what you are trying to articulate ..." or "I understand your reasoning for saying that kind of thing ..." yet there is one larger truth to be heard. "Nevertheless ..."
What is so striking about Ibsen's use of that word is that it became his final testimony of faith. On his deathbed, feeble and flushed, when death made its final call and demanded to destroy Ibsen's life as a dramatic tragedy headed for the last curtain, Ibsen raised his voice to offer a religious rebuttal. "Nevertheless ..." What he meant is that there is no argument death can offer which can defeat the great "Yes!" of God declared by Jesus on Easter morning.
No one has claimed that truth more powerfully than Alexander Simpson. Dr. Simpson discovered the sedating qualities of chloroform in 1847, and people in surgery rooms have blessed him ever since. He became very famous and lectured for many years at the medical school in the University of Edinburgh.
A student once asked him what he considered to be his most important discovery, thinking that the class would be treated to another version of the famous chloroform tale. Instead, Dr. Simpson surprised the group by saying, "My most valuable discovery was finding the love of God!"
The truth of Dr. Simpson's testimony became evident the day that his little girl died. All the medicines in her father's black bag could not heal her. When they buried her body in an Edinburgh cemetery, the marble stone at her grave carried her name, the dates that spanned her short life, and one single word of faith: "Nevertheless"!
It is not death that has the last laugh in this cruel world. It is God who laughs the laughter of the resurrection. And in that laughter all of creation sings.
So, too, do the people who share in the great resurrection "Yes!" of Jesus. Or at least they should. Gerald Kennedy, in his book on homiletics, tells of a preacher who devoted his career to being against things. Every week his sermon condemned this idea and challenged that notion. He was against this practice and not in favor of that one.
For a while, says Kennedy, his congregation grew and grew. People like to listen to someone who gets them riled up, who stirs their blood and calls them out to war. They like to feel that they are on the right side, especially when anyone else is clearly on the wrong side.
This preacher made them feel so good to feel so bad. Yet when he retired, the crowds disappeared and the congregation withered to extinction. When no one was there to tell them what they were against, the people didn't have a clue what they were for! It was easy to feed on criticism and guilt and self--righteousness when he was dancing in the pulpit, throwing stones in every direction. But when the stones stopped flying, the people didn't know what they stood for. Hatred had burned them out and they had never learned to love or laugh.
That is what happens when the Church focuses on sin but never gets around to grace; when the Church looks for the frown on God's face without ever seeing the delight of his laughter; when the Church looks for a "No!" and fails to hear God's great "Yes!"
God Loves
There is a third note of optimism in Paul's words. It comes in the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, said Jesus, is the Advocate, the Counselor, the living power of God within us, confirming our lives.
In a sense, the presence of the Holy Spirit within is like a first kiss which brings us back to God for more. It is like a taste of fine food which keeps us salivating for the whole meal. It is like the promise of a friend which brings us back to the mailbox each day waiting for the next letter.
One poet stood on a rocky shore looking out to sea. She drank in the majesty of the ocean, marveling at its expanse. Yet she knew that what she saw was only the smallest part of an infinite volume, a rolling tide that went on and on and on.
Then she made this comparison. She wrote:
We can only see a little of God's loving,
a few rich samples of His mighty store,
But out there, beyond the eye's horizon,
there's more! There's more! (author unknown)
That is the "guarantee" of the Holy Spirit which Paul writes about in these verses, a "deposit" of eternity which we can experience already in time. It is a tiny taste of God's love for us. It is the first wave of the ocean of his care. When we know that, we cannot be pessimistic! Lovers are the greatest optimists in the world! Jesus said that the mark of his people would be their love. Not their self--righteousness or their guilt or hatred or cynicism, but their love!
In Cervantes' famous book, Don Quixote, the main character has poor eyes but a big heart. Everybody laughs at him because he cannot see straight. He thinks his old, decrepit horse is a mighty stallion. He tells a prostitute that she is a noble lady. He goes out looking for glorious causes.
Don Quixote is in love with God and with life. When the cynics shake their heads, Quixote challenges them: "Who's crazy? Am I crazy because I see the world as it could become? Or is the world crazy because it sees itself as it is?"
The power of Christian faith is a marvelous thing. God, by his Spirit, helps us to see life as it is becoming. No one in the Church who has ever eaten the bread or drunk from the cup can be satisfied again with things as they are. They begin to see things as God sees them. They begin to love as God has loved. They begin to live in the way God calls them to live.
That is optimism at its very best. God lives! God laughs! God loves! And so can we!
Sometimes we try to limit God's work in our lives. One tourist remembers walking a pier in California and stopping to chat with a fisherman. Every time the man reeled in a big one he pulled out his measuring tape and checked its length. The shortest fish went into his bucket, while the largest catches were thrown back into the sea.
The visitor was curious. Why would the fisherman keep only the small ones? So he asked.
"Well," said the man, "my frying pan is only ten inches across, so I can't cook the others!"
Sometimes we set limits like that with God. We become pessimistic and don't believe that God can change things. So we don't ask. We don't really trust his laughter, so we spend our lives fearing his frown. We can't imagine the bigness of his love, so we keep our hearts small.
Because of that, our Christianity wilts. Our faith founders. Our love dies.
But if we truly hear what Paul says in these verses, the sound of heaven's cheering sets us free. God lives! God laughs! God loves!
And so can we!
She gave him a response I've never forgotten. "Now, John," she said, "you know perfectly well that I never enjoy having a good time!"
Does she sound like anyone you know?
Some people are like that. Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer, was asked to give a message to the young people of his day. "If I were a young person," he replied, "I think I'd chuck it all ... The odds are too great against you ... The sooner [you] jump out of a window, the sooner [you'll] find peace!"
That's the way life seems for some people. Existence is a burden, a daily pain, a test of endurance. These folks always see the dark side of things.
One writer tells of a man who was so ill--tempered, so impossible to please, that everyone around him lived in fear and trembling. His wife would gently ask him each morning how he wanted his eggs cooked. Just to be difficult, one day he said, "I want one fried and one scrambled!"
When she slid the eggs on to his plate he got angry, shouting, "You can't get anything right! You fried the wrong one!"
What a way to live!
Actually, it is really more of a way to die. Several researchers at Harvard University found that people who are pessimistic when in their twenties are more likely than others to be in poor health when they reach middle age. There were three reasons for this noted in the research results. First, pessimistic people usually don't take care of themselves, since they believe that they cannot prevent the bad things that they know are going to happen to them, no matter what. They give up trying to care, and just let themselves go to ruin.
Second, pessimistic people shut themselves off from friends and family. They go it alone, and the loneliness wears them down.
Third, pessimistic people feel helpless. They don't trust others. They don't have confidence in themselves. Similarly, according to the study, they don't truly believe in God. Even if they call themselves "religious," they don't believe that God can do anything to change the mess of this world or the chaos of their lives.
That is a tragedy! Christians are not sugarcoated optimists, of course, but they do have reason for a positive disposition. Perhaps not as positive as the hunter who bragged continually to his friends about his shooting skills, and then, when he emptied both barrels of his shotgun and the duck kept flying, said, "Wow! We just witnessed a miracle! There flies a dead duck!"
That may be optimism, but it is hardly in touch with reality.
Christian optimism does not ignore the evil and violence and suffering in this world. We know all too well the effects of sin and pride and racism. Yet a Christian can never become a pessimist, seeing only the dark side of the picture. Paul says that in these verses. The message of the gospel, he says, is a message of "Yes!" rather than "No!" because God is the God of the great "Yes!" of Jesus Christ.
This is the message he preached. This is the story that makes people stand up and say "Amen!" rather than jumping out of the window to their deaths. This is the message of the Holy Spirit, breathing in our hearts the guarantees of eternal love.
That is the heart of the gospel. It is the essence of the religion of the Bible. In fact, it is the main reason why we are here together this morning: not because we haven't seen any trouble, or because we don't know about tragedy, or because everything has gone our way in the past week; rather, we are here because God is bigger than any of our difficulties, and he fills us with joy.
That comes out in three ways in these verses.
God Lives
First, God lives. He is in control. Paul says the Corinthian Christians can count on his own words and deeds, "as surely as God is faithful."
There is life--changing optimism in that phrase. Richard Mouw tells how it came home to him one day in 1976 when he boarded a plane in New Jersey, bound for a speaking engagement in Texas. The man seated next to him was obviously wealthy, and just as obviously full of conversation. It was the week of the presidential primary in Texas, and this fellow had firm opinions that he was more than willing to share.
"Yep," he said with a Texas drawl, "this is going to be a good election for us! We're going to win this one!"
Cautiously Richard Mouw asked him who this "we" might be.
"Ronald Reagan, of course!" came the answer. "You see," he told Mouw, "I'm for oil, and Reagan is for oil, so oil is for Reagan, and so am I!"
It was all very clear to him. Richard Mouw wasn't in the mood for a political debate, so he just smiled, nodded, and turned to his book.
Then something caught his eye. The oil man opened his briefcase, took out a Bible, a legal pad, and a pen. For a long while he read his Bible, making notes and checking cross--references. Finally he stopped and thought for a long moment. He leaned over to Richard Mouw and tapped his arm. "Young man," he said, "I have to apologize to you."
Mouw couldn't think of any reason for such an apology, but the man went on. "Back there on the runway I told you I was for oil," he said. "But I'm a Christian. And I'm leading our Bible study at church this week. And we're going through the book of James. And James says that we have to live our faith. And I'm sorry that I told you I was for oil, because I'm not really for oil. I'm for Jesus Christ, and I have to vote in the way the Jesus would want me to vote."
Exactly!
It is in that kind of outlook of faith that a godly optimism is developed. In fact, without that perspective on life reality can seem very chaotic at best, and very oppressive at worst. Just today, for instance, a 22--year--old young husband called me to say that doctors have found a fourth tumor in his body. He goes for treatments next week. His bride is frantic. What kind of world is this that threatens a good man with death at such an early age?
In fact, Carl Jung, the great psychologist and student of human behavior, said, "Among all my patients in the second half of life ... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
He said of his patients that "every one of them fell ill because he lost a sense of divine purpose." Each fell apart because she or he lacked the optimism of faith to see her or him through the troubling times of life.
This is why Robert Browning's little verse continues to resonate with people who have a sense of religious optimism:
The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew--pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
"... as surely as God is faithful ..." says Paul. God lives, and the world turns round right.
God Laughs
That optimism comes through even more powerfully when Paul writes about the great "Yes!" of God. The way Paul writes about it brings a smile to our faces. In fact, he says, when God's "Yes!" is heard in this world, people say, "Amen!"
The "Yes!" of God carries with it the connotations Ibsen often put in his debates. Typically he would listen to the various sides of an argument, countered back and forth, and then, time and again, he would begin his answer with the simple word "Nevertheless ..."
It was as if he were saying, "I hear what you said ..." or "I know what you are trying to articulate ..." or "I understand your reasoning for saying that kind of thing ..." yet there is one larger truth to be heard. "Nevertheless ..."
What is so striking about Ibsen's use of that word is that it became his final testimony of faith. On his deathbed, feeble and flushed, when death made its final call and demanded to destroy Ibsen's life as a dramatic tragedy headed for the last curtain, Ibsen raised his voice to offer a religious rebuttal. "Nevertheless ..." What he meant is that there is no argument death can offer which can defeat the great "Yes!" of God declared by Jesus on Easter morning.
No one has claimed that truth more powerfully than Alexander Simpson. Dr. Simpson discovered the sedating qualities of chloroform in 1847, and people in surgery rooms have blessed him ever since. He became very famous and lectured for many years at the medical school in the University of Edinburgh.
A student once asked him what he considered to be his most important discovery, thinking that the class would be treated to another version of the famous chloroform tale. Instead, Dr. Simpson surprised the group by saying, "My most valuable discovery was finding the love of God!"
The truth of Dr. Simpson's testimony became evident the day that his little girl died. All the medicines in her father's black bag could not heal her. When they buried her body in an Edinburgh cemetery, the marble stone at her grave carried her name, the dates that spanned her short life, and one single word of faith: "Nevertheless"!
It is not death that has the last laugh in this cruel world. It is God who laughs the laughter of the resurrection. And in that laughter all of creation sings.
So, too, do the people who share in the great resurrection "Yes!" of Jesus. Or at least they should. Gerald Kennedy, in his book on homiletics, tells of a preacher who devoted his career to being against things. Every week his sermon condemned this idea and challenged that notion. He was against this practice and not in favor of that one.
For a while, says Kennedy, his congregation grew and grew. People like to listen to someone who gets them riled up, who stirs their blood and calls them out to war. They like to feel that they are on the right side, especially when anyone else is clearly on the wrong side.
This preacher made them feel so good to feel so bad. Yet when he retired, the crowds disappeared and the congregation withered to extinction. When no one was there to tell them what they were against, the people didn't have a clue what they were for! It was easy to feed on criticism and guilt and self--righteousness when he was dancing in the pulpit, throwing stones in every direction. But when the stones stopped flying, the people didn't know what they stood for. Hatred had burned them out and they had never learned to love or laugh.
That is what happens when the Church focuses on sin but never gets around to grace; when the Church looks for the frown on God's face without ever seeing the delight of his laughter; when the Church looks for a "No!" and fails to hear God's great "Yes!"
God Loves
There is a third note of optimism in Paul's words. It comes in the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, said Jesus, is the Advocate, the Counselor, the living power of God within us, confirming our lives.
In a sense, the presence of the Holy Spirit within is like a first kiss which brings us back to God for more. It is like a taste of fine food which keeps us salivating for the whole meal. It is like the promise of a friend which brings us back to the mailbox each day waiting for the next letter.
One poet stood on a rocky shore looking out to sea. She drank in the majesty of the ocean, marveling at its expanse. Yet she knew that what she saw was only the smallest part of an infinite volume, a rolling tide that went on and on and on.
Then she made this comparison. She wrote:
We can only see a little of God's loving,
a few rich samples of His mighty store,
But out there, beyond the eye's horizon,
there's more! There's more! (author unknown)
That is the "guarantee" of the Holy Spirit which Paul writes about in these verses, a "deposit" of eternity which we can experience already in time. It is a tiny taste of God's love for us. It is the first wave of the ocean of his care. When we know that, we cannot be pessimistic! Lovers are the greatest optimists in the world! Jesus said that the mark of his people would be their love. Not their self--righteousness or their guilt or hatred or cynicism, but their love!
In Cervantes' famous book, Don Quixote, the main character has poor eyes but a big heart. Everybody laughs at him because he cannot see straight. He thinks his old, decrepit horse is a mighty stallion. He tells a prostitute that she is a noble lady. He goes out looking for glorious causes.
Don Quixote is in love with God and with life. When the cynics shake their heads, Quixote challenges them: "Who's crazy? Am I crazy because I see the world as it could become? Or is the world crazy because it sees itself as it is?"
The power of Christian faith is a marvelous thing. God, by his Spirit, helps us to see life as it is becoming. No one in the Church who has ever eaten the bread or drunk from the cup can be satisfied again with things as they are. They begin to see things as God sees them. They begin to love as God has loved. They begin to live in the way God calls them to live.
That is optimism at its very best. God lives! God laughs! God loves! And so can we!
Sometimes we try to limit God's work in our lives. One tourist remembers walking a pier in California and stopping to chat with a fisherman. Every time the man reeled in a big one he pulled out his measuring tape and checked its length. The shortest fish went into his bucket, while the largest catches were thrown back into the sea.
The visitor was curious. Why would the fisherman keep only the small ones? So he asked.
"Well," said the man, "my frying pan is only ten inches across, so I can't cook the others!"
Sometimes we set limits like that with God. We become pessimistic and don't believe that God can change things. So we don't ask. We don't really trust his laughter, so we spend our lives fearing his frown. We can't imagine the bigness of his love, so we keep our hearts small.
Because of that, our Christianity wilts. Our faith founders. Our love dies.
But if we truly hear what Paul says in these verses, the sound of heaven's cheering sets us free. God lives! God laughs! God loves!
And so can we!
