Sermon: IT'S STILL GOING
Preached: April 5, 1992
As I’ve been sharing these sermons from over 30 years ago I’ve been amazed at how applicable they could be today. In fact, some of the anxiety of life those many years ago not only are still with us but it is now much amplified.
There is a great story about one of my former church members in Grand Forks. Don’t miss it.
Scripture Reading:
Revelation 1:4-8, 12-18 (NRSV)
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty ….
Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
Lloyd C. Douglas, the author of many novels including The Robe tells this story about when he was university student, living in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now a shut-in. Douglas said every morning they would have a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his turning for, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, “That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C.”
That was the good news for the elderly man. He had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life.
Here is some good news for us. It comes from the lips of Jesus as he describes himself, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I am the one who is and who was and who is to come.” Just as middle C could be described as a “still point in a changing, turning way” on a much grander scale, with even more certainty, Jesus is the one still point, the one unchangeable point -- the one absolute.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega” or as we might translate it from Greek to English, “I am the A and the Z.”
These words came to the apostle John in a vision several years after Jesus had returned to heaven. The church, still in its infancy, was experiencing much persecution. Many of Jesus’ followers had been killed. John was exiled on the island of Patmos.
I’m sure he spent much time looking from the island to the mainland, thinking about and praying for his fellow Christians. I’m sure he worried about them as well. On one of those occasions, in the middle of all that anxiety, maybe even as John questioned his own faith and wondered if it was all worth it, Jesus comes - “John, I have always been. I will always be. I am with you and my church right now. I can not be defeated. I will be with you tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that.”
This brief statement sums up much of what Jesus shared, which in turn greatly affected the understanding of his followers.
Jesus is the beginning. John writes in his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word of God; and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by him; without him was not anything made.”
If all things were made by him, if this world and all that is in it were created by him, then we can trust him and his ways for guidance in how we are supposed to live. Just as the inventor is the most worthy to know how his invention is to work best, Jesus is most worthy to let us know how we and this world are supposed to work.
Jesus is the end. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “And he made known to us the mystery of his will accoridng to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment -- to bring all tings in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
In the future -- he will return. All things will be brought into unity under him. We can trust not only our tomorrow to him, but we can trust our eternity to him.
What does that mean to us? What does it mean for us that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega?
The question for us to consider today is - in what or in whom are we placing our trust? Is it another human being? is it the American economy? is it our military strength? is it on the odds of winning the big lottery? is it the medical community, the scientific community? is it ourselves? A more accurate question still, “is there anyone out there we can trust?” In this day and age - as we face intimidating technology and a profusion of moral failure we have become a people unable to trust.
A female voice came over the telephone: “Is this the Fidelity Insurance Company?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well,” said the voice, “I want to speak to someone about having my husband’s fidelity insured.”
Spouses are unable to trust one another. We can’t trust politicians. We can’t trust bankers. We can’t trust the repairperson. We can’t trust ministers. Who can we trust?
Jesus calls us to make the sure bet -- himself.
Some of the hymn writers did it and wrote about it.
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.”
“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness .... On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.”
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee.”
“God is my strong salvation, what foe have I to fear In darkness and temptation, My light, my help is near. Though hosts encamp around me, Firm in the fight I stand, What terror can confound me, with God at my right hand.”
Middle C is the absolute for a musician but Jesus is the absolute for life.
What is the good news? Jesus is with us. He was with us yesterday, he will be with us tomorrow, he will be with us 1000 years from now. People may fail us, the stock market may rise and fall, but, Jesus is with us.
I’m sure I’ll tell this story more than once while I am here. It is about one of our church members, Edith Kaupfmann. Edith was the church organist for many years here at Zion. She is blind now and unable to get to the church. The last time I visited her she played for me on her home organ. Her granddaughter helped her to the organ bench and placed her fingers on the upper key board. Edith explained how difficult it was to play now that she is blind but she has a system. If she can get started with “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” she can find her way around through many of the other gospels hymns she has stored away in her memory. And that’s just what she did. After a few hesitations she began to play “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and then she was off and playing.
What an illustration. If we can discover Jesus as our friend. If we start with him, our middle C, we can find our way through the rest of life in good order.