March 18th:
Potsdam
Call: Numbers 21: 4-9
Text: Ephesians 2: 1-10
Read: W&S 86
The Gift
People who saw the movie, "A League of Their Own", remember two things:
Geena Davis as catcher Dottie Hinson
being photographed doing a split as she catches a foul ball
a picture that ended up on the cover of "Life" magazine
and
Tom Hanks, as Jimmy Dugan, manager of the Rockford Peaches
shouting desperately at a tearful player,
"There's no crying in baseball!"
As a memorable movie line, Hank's declaration about crying ranks right up there with:
"The truth? You can't handle the Truth!"
"I'll have what she's having."
"Make him an offer he can't refuse."
Or more recently, "I made a pie for you."
But Hanks' character is wrong
and not just in
"the All American Girls Professional Baseball League."
For there is crying in life
We cry when we are sad
We cry when we are in pain
And We cry when we are moved by something good.
Crying is an emotional release.
For me at least, the third of the mentioned crying times
(Crying when moved by something good)
Is the most common.
For when my heart and soul have been touched
By an act of kindness, thoughtfulness, or generosity
I know I have seen an example of the love that God requires of us
And it moves me
At times, it moves me to tears.
Each year for example, when it comes to sharing the name of the person who is to be celebrated at the Sub-district's laity banquet,
I have to have the lay leader read the information submitted
Because I choke up
About the opportunity to celebrate someone in our congregation.
And I have been known to get emotional at movies as well
When the Romans go to arrest Spartacus
And offer to let his band of followers go
If Spartacus will come forward,
Nearly the entire army stands up one at a time
With each proclaiming, "I am Spartacus."
My eyes get moist because of their loyalty to and love for him
I guess then that it should surprise no one that my favorite short story is
"The Gift of the Magi" by O'Henry.
The story is not new
It was published in 1906
I first read it about 1960.
It moved me then. It moves me now.
You know the story. Wikipedia summarizes it this way:
Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest flat. They each have one possession in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair and Jim's gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather.
On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20, and eventually finds a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Happy to have found the perfect gift at last, she runs home and begins to prepare dinner.
When Jim comes home, he looks at Della with an expression "that she could not read, and it terrified her." Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives Della her present — an array of expensive combs for her hair. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim says he sold his watch to get the money to buy her combs.
These two people loved each other so much
That in order to express that love on Christmas
each surrendered the possession that meant the most to him/her
Doesn't that get to you?
Doesn't it touch your heart and your soul?
Doesn't it move you - even, perhaps, to tears?
I think it should
O'Henry's story is a story about sacrificial love
And as such is a way for us to understand and experience
What Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus
In this morning's scripture
[Ephesians 2: 1-10]
Paul, in speaking to us as well as to the Ephesians, says
You were dead
Your relationship with God was not living, but lifeless
You were dead Through your trespasses
(willful or knowing violations of God's law)
You were dead Through your sins
(any and all violations of God's will)
You were dead.
Instead of having a living and obedient relationship with God,
you followed the course of this world
This is what God was talking about.
When in our Ash Wednesday scripture, God told Isaiah to
"Announce to my people their rebellion"
And despaired,
"... day after day they seek me ....
As if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
And did not forsake the ordinance of God."
The people didn't even realize that they were rebellious
The people didn't even recognize that they were dead
They went through the motions of religion
They called out to God
They fasted; they wore sackcloth; and they sat in ashes
They were puzzled and upset that God seemed oblivious to them
But in actuality,
Despite their rituals and formal actions
they were oblivious to God
Paul told them that they had been dead
Not to be mean
Not to chastise them
Not to put them down
But to help them understand
What an awesome and remarkable gift they had received from God
For Paul explains that
despite their lifeless relationship with God
And despite their rebellious attitudes,
that God still was determined
to revitalize and resurrect their/our relationship
to, in short, make us alive again through Christ
God was so determined, because God is rich in mercy,
A mercy born in his great love for us
A love God had for us
Even when we were dead as a result of our self inflicted wounds
And Paul tells the Ephesians - and, of course, tells us -
That it is by grace, you have been saved through faith
That this is not your own doing
That this is not the result of your works
You did nothing to deserve this
It is simply the gift of God.
That love and that attempt to call us back to a right relationship
Is God's approach throughout the scriptures.
Even when the people were disobedient
God preserved humankind through Noah
With the hope that we would come closer
When there was about to be a famine
God preserved the Israelites through Joseph
With the hope that we would come closer
When they were enslaved in Egypt
God preserved the Israelites through Moses
With the hope that we would come closer
And speaking of Moses
Look at the story that called us to worship
The ones about the snakes biting and poisoning the people
In that story, it is so obvious that God didn't really want to punish
God simply wanted the people to be closer
Thus, God had Moses make a pole for them to look at when they got bit
That snake pole was to remind the people of God
Like the post flood rainbow was to remind God of God's promise
How about the prophets
Who warned
Who cajoled
Who promised
Always with the goal of bringing God's people back into relationship.
But finally, since we still hadn't seemed to get it
God who loves us even more than
Jim loved Della or Della loved Jim
Did exactly what the Youngs did in O'Henry's story
to show their love for each other
that was: to give up the thing that meant the most
Della cut her hair
Jim sold his watch
God sent God's son to the cross
Yes, God did what Jim and Della did
For the same reason - love.
But there is a difference between these stories
Jim and Della made their sacrifices for persons (each other)
Who loved them
and with whom they had a mutually loving relationship
God, however,
sacrificed God's son for persons (Ephesians, others, and us)
Whom God loved
But who had not loved God enough
To make the relationship mutually loving
God's sacrifice was for people who were dead and in rebellion.
O'Henry's story still moves us to tears,
In my case a half century after I first read it.
If we have a tearful reaction to the sale of her hair and his watch
How much greater must our reaction be
To God's sending God's son to the cross
In order to call us to him
Despite our rebellion and our dead, disobedient spirit
There is really no comparison is there?
God's grace is a gift
an awesome, remarkable gift
Even more awesome and even more remarkable
Than the gifts that touch our hearts in O'Henry's story
We should be grateful
Powerfully grateful.
We should be moved - even to tears.