The Rev. Charleston Wilson
In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Heart disease. The American Medical Association tells us that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. That’s physical death, of course. But, it just so happens that the leading cause of spiritual death and decay also comes from heart disease – the disease of a troubled heart.
And it is to worn out, troubled hearts that our Saviour speaks today in the 14th chapter of the gospel according to St. John. Jesus tells his disciples: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
Jesus is speaking about a spiritual illness – a troubled heart or a burdened heart that doesn’t see the big picture.
But, Jesus prescribes the cure, and it is this: He tells his disciples – he tells us – “Believe in God, believe also in Me (in Jesus).”
At the most foundational and fundamental level, to believe in God, to believe in Jesus, is to believe in Easter – which is the reality of an empty tomb, the reality of a Saviour who is alive and the promise of eternal life. And to believe in Easter is to suddenly realize – maybe even for the first time – that ultimately everything is going to be okay.
Now, I don’t mean okay like I might tell a child when he or she scrapes a knee. I mean, for those who believe – followers of The Way – it really is going to be okay!
And by okay, I also don’t mean we’re all getting Cadillacs and really white teeth next week. I mean it’s really going to be – all of it (whatever it is) is going to be – okay.
“If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
It’s Eastertide, folks: “The strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory of life is won; the song of triumph has begun.” The tomb was empty when they arrived on that first Easter morn! And let me let you in on another little secret: if you get on an airplane this afternoon and fly all the way to Jerusalem, and you go to see the tomb of Jesus, you will discover that – even after all these years – it’s still empty!
And that’s what the gospel is all about! And, to quote Duke Ellington, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”
A few weeks ago – all of a sudden – I had this burning desire to watch mindless TV (there’s a troubled heart for you!). For some reason I always get that urge when I have an important deadline looming! So, it was one of those days, and I was thinking I’d select something on Netflix or Amazon that required very little, if any, brain power to help take my mind off of things. I was shooting for something highly ridiculous like House of Cards or Catastrophe.
For some reason, however, a banner ad for the movie Captain Phillips popped up, so I rented it instead. If you haven’t seen it, it is not a sleeper; it’s a real emotional rollercoaster, nail-biting kind of a film. Tom Hanks plays Captain Richard Phillips, whose container ship (you may recall) was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. He is taken hostage and held for ransom in a small lifeboat. He spends five days seasick without water while being tortured by the pirates, as they grow increasingly angry about the time it’s taking to be paid the ransom money.
At the low point, he even pens a goodbye letter to his wife and children, knowing he would surely be killed. Just when all hope seems lost, a U.S. Naval destroyer shows up and Navy Seal snipers execute the hijackers.
When they transfer a stunned Captain Phillips into the sick bay on the destroyer, a calm and polite military doctor looks in his eyes, and says, “You’re safe now; you’re going to be okay.” In shock, Captain Phillips begins to tremble uncontrollably, looks back at the doctor and says, “thank you” and he begins weeping – weeping with relief and joy, knowing everything is really, truly and finally going to be okay.
That’s what I mean when I say that Easter says everything is ultimately going to be okay, because that’s what happens when a troubled heart encounters love. That’s what can happen when you and I encounter the empty tomb.
Have you ever seen the You Tube episodes about those inner-city neglected and injured dogs that are rescued by teams of volunteers? When they are first approached, the dogs are really aggressive and they even try to attack their rescuers. But, after a few weeks of love, those are the happiest most docile dogs on the planet!
That’s the same kind of thing that happens when a troubled heart encounters love. That’s what can happen when you and I truly and genuinely encounter the reality of the empty tomb – the depth of God’s love for us. Only then can a heart of horror turn into a heart of hope.
Let me also say, so that you don’t think I’m glossing over it, that I recognize the fact that we all face hardships and suffering in this present life. I have mine; you have yours.
But what I’m trying to do primarily today is simply to paint the big, eternal picture – the thirty thousand foot top-down view of what Jesus was trying to say to His disciples.
Perhaps a better way to put it comes from a t-shirt I saw recently in a church book shop in Atlanta: “Everything is going to be okay in the end. If it’s not okay right now, it’s not the end.” That is Easter hope; and it is that hope that can heal spiritual heart trouble.
I also need to say that today is also Mother’s Day in this country. And, for many, if not most of us, our mothers are the ones who first taught us – first helped us to make sense out of – what it means when someone says, “Everything is going to be okay.”
I remember vividly the day I tried out for our local little league baseball team. I tried out for the First Bank of Linden Reds. My grandfather was chairman of the board, so I thought I had a pretty good shot, despite have absolutely zero athletic ability (I was and am an avid indoorsman!).
Well, would you believe they had the audacity not only turn me down, but they picked all of my friends instead (not that I’m bitter or really remember the details). Anyway, I can still remember coming home and crying in my room. And I still remember my mother coming into my room, drying my eyes with her hand and saying, “Charleston, no matter what happened out there today, I promise you that, in the end, everything is going to be okay.” And it was. And so it can be for you.
Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
Go ahead and trust him. Give it a try.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston D. Wilson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Fifth Sunday of Easter
14 May 2017