Surprised By Life

April 19, 1987

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200 miles Northeast of Los Angeles, California, there lies a desert gorge which goes by the forbidding name of Death Valley. Maybe some of you have been there, or seen it filmed in motion pictures. In altitude it’s the lowest spot in the continental United States...276 ft. below sea level.

It’s also the hottest spot in the United States, hotter even than Orlando in the summertime.

The official maximum temperature reading is 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Practically nothing lives there. A few little rivulets run down from the surrounding mountains into Death Valley and just disappear into the sand. The average annual rainfall is only 2.5 inches, less than we get here the weekend of the Art Festival.

But awhile back an amazing thing happened out there. It was completely unseasonable,

completely unexpected, and completely out of character for that region of the world, but for some reason, it began to rain in Death Valley, and it rained for 19 straight days.

Nobody in living memory had ever seen anything like it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it seemed, all kinds of seeds that had been lying dormant, apparently for years, burst into bloom, filling the whole area with color and beauty. Those who resided nearby called it miraculous. In a valley of death, people were surprised by life.

You’re already way ahead of me. Call it a kind of parable if you will. In a way this is the story of Passion Week and Easter. THE CRUCIFIXION IS THE DEATH VALLEY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. It’s the lowest spot on the Biblical continent. It’s the desert floor of human existence, where all the trails run out, and there is no place left to turn for shelter. IT’S THE END OF THE ROAD.

But on Easter the showers of God’s grace fell down on the world... “showers of blessing”,

the old hymn calls it, and suddenly new life burst forth before people’s eyes in this old, dead gorge of human history.

The Resurrection accounts in the Gospels differ from one another in minor detail.... That bothers some people and delights some skeptics---but you can make too much out of it.... Basically, they all tell the same story: PEOPLE EXPECTING DEATH WERE SURPRISED BY LIFE.

Mark, for example, tells how three women went early Sunday morning to the tomb to anoint a dead body. That’s what they thought they’d find. That’s what they EXPECTED to find.... It was all they had left. They were surprised by life.... HE IS RISEN.

John tells how Mary Magdalene stood at the mouth of the grave with tears running down her cheeks, until she heard a voice that was strangely familiar calling her name....  “Mary, Mary...why are you weeping?” IT ABSOLUTELY TOOK HER BREATH AWAY.

Two disciples were walking along the road to the village of Emmaus. As they walked, they poured out their hearts to a Stranger who had joined them. Then evening came. They all went inside for supper. Then the stranger broke bread----

Was it the way He did it, some gesture they recognized? Was it the words He used? Or could it have been the nail wounds they saw in His hands? SOMETHING HAPPENED. Something about the way He broke the bread opened their eyes, and they dropped everything and ran...RACED...all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the others how with eyes for death, they had been surprised by life.

Over and over again Jesus came upon frightened groups of followers and transformed

their existence from one of living death to one of radiant life. THIS IS THE EXPLICIT GOSPEL TESTIMONY. In a way that is almost explosive in nature, God’s grace and power fell into the Death Valley of their souls and caused new life to spring into bloom.

It makes you think, doesn’t it? May I draw it out, expand on it a bit? It IS the preacher’s prerogative, after all.

1) It makes you think, in the first place, that YOU CAN’T JUDGE ALL OF LIFE BY THE

IMMEDIATE CIRCUMSTANCES. That is, don’t be too quick to pass judgement. The returns

may not all be in.

Way back in the 19th Century some parents in New York had a child who was extremely weak and sickly, even from birth. They did their best, they tried, they took him to the finest doctors, they worked with him, but he didn’t get any stronger. AND they lost heart. They gave up. They said, “He’s never going to be strong and healthy. We might as well admit it.” THEY JUDGED HIS WHOLE LIFE BY HIS INFANCY.

Some years ago there was a college student bogged down in the sophomore slump. Some of you know about that. He was actually suffering from dyslexia, we call it now, but that word hadn’t even been invented at that time. He saw letters backward, He couldn’t focus properly, and his grades went down and down. He was right on the verge of throwing books and everything into the trash can and leaving school forever.

“What’s the use?”, he said, “This whole business of pursuing truth is impossible.” “I’m not going to stay here.” HE JUDGED 4 YEARS OF COLLEGE BY ONE BAD SEMESTER. In the 18th Century, a musician went deaf. His hearing deteriorated to the point where he literally couldn’t hear it thunder, and he thought he was through, thought he was finished in his work. How can you be a musician if you can’t hear?

“What am I supposed to do?”, he said. “What can I possibly do with my life NOW?” HE JUDGED A WHOLE CAREER A FAILURE BECAUSE OF AN IMMEDIATE SETBACK.

The Disciples followed their Master right up to needle’s eye of death. Then they saw everything, all their hopes and dreams, disintegrate in their hands. CAN’T YOU IMAGINE HOW THEY MUST HAVE FELT? Can’t you imagine they must have thought, WHAT KIND OF IDIOTIC ENDING IS THIS, ANYWAY? It doesn’t make any sense!

THEY JUDGED EVERYTHING BY THE TRAGEDY OF THE MOMENT. But, you see, it’s a mistake to judge too quickly. it’s a mistake to judge a day by just one hour, or a year by just one day, or a lifetime by just one year. The frail child who looked as though he’d never be strong grew up to be a Rough Rider, and his name was Teddy Roosevelt.

The dyslexic college student who was so disgusted with his studies and was on the brink of quitting had a renewing vision of truth and went on to do some rather notable work in the area of physics, His name was Albert Einstein. And the musician who lost his hearing was, of course, Ludwig von Beethoven, who, when totally deaf, wrote the magnificent Ninth Symphony, which he was never able to hear performed.

YOU NEVER KNOW. The cold, pallid darkness of Good Friday turned into the most radiant sunrise this old world has ever known, and who would have believed it possible?

A good chunk of the Easter message is here---DON’T BE TOO SURE ABOUT THINGS

DON’T JUDGE TOO QUICKLY. Don’t think you have to evaluate all of life by the immediate, bad circumstances. BECAUSE THAT MAY NOT BE THE WHOLE STORY. Maybe this year hasn’t been exactly the year you wanted it to be and planned for it to be when it started.... Maybe some things have happened that have been hard to handle.... THAT FACT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE DETERMINATIVE OF THE FUTURE.

Maybe some things in your life now are bogged down by pressures, or family relationships, or circumstances, or economics, or whatever.... It doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Maybe you feel caught now in a box, in a trap, or maybe you’re just plugging along unimaginatively in the same old rut.   

WHO SAYS IT ALWAYS HAS TO REMAIN SO? The Easter story tells us that even if life seems empty, or pointless, or teeming with impossible difficulties, it may not be that way forever. WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, YOU MAY BE SURPRISED BY LIFE.

2) It makes you think. It makes you think, in the second place, that YOU NEVER KNOW

WHERE NEW LIFE WILL COME FROM.

Judging from the Gospels, it may come when you’re on your way to anoint a dead body.

It may come, as with Mary, when you’re standing on the valley floor, with only the relics of death to give cold comfort.

It may come, as it did to Simon Peter, when you’ve absolutely given up, and are on your way back home to forget it all. It may break in on you as you stand with the broken pieces of your shattered dreams in your hands.... YOU NEVER KNOW. When John Keats was 20 years old, he was a medical student in London. He was decentenough student, they say, but somehow his studies weren’t satisfying to him. He was just going through the motions.

One day a friend gave him a copy of Chapman’s translation of The Iliad, Homer’s great classic. As he read through that book, it was sheer magic to him. He tells us, “Then I felt like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his view.” Forgetting all about medicine, John Keats found new life breaking forth from poetry and a dusty, old book.

Dr. Benjamin Duggar was the discoverer of a modern wonder drug. During his later years, everywhere he went, he would scoop up a handful of soil and send it back to a laboratory in New York. People who were with him or saw him often thought he was out of his mind. But Dr. Duggar remembered that it was in just such a handful of dirt scooped up from a farm in Missouri, that had hidden within it the golden mold which produced the drug “aureomycin”. “You never know”, he would say, “where a better drug will be found.”

And Easter reminds us that we never know where new life will break forth.... Maybe in a dusty, old book, maybe in a handful of dirt, maybe in a desolate tomb in Death Valley. You see, NO CIRCUMSTANCE IS SO DESPERATE, OR SO GOD-FORSAKEN THAT IT’S BEYOND THE CAPACITY OF GOD TO REDEEM. On Good Friday, the forces of evil did their worst.... AND IT WASN’T ENOUGH. Easter means no situation is past redemption, and the breakthrough may come from almost any quarter.

New life may be around you right now---in a flower, in the song of a bird, in some job that needs to be done, in some person near to you who needs your ministry. THAT’S HOW IT OFTEN STARTS, YOU KNOW. YOU GET TO KNOW GOD. That’s probably the best way to begin moving closer to God. Let me ask you.... Is your life, now, as rich and as full as you want it to be? Do you know inside a sense of wholeness and well-being as you deal with people?

Do you ever have a sneaky feeling that there just may be something more, something DEEPER about life than you’ve yet experienced? I believe this---THE BEST WAY TO KNOW GOD, AND HENCE LIFE....THE BEST WAY TO KNOW GOD AND LIFE IS TO GO TO WORK FOR HIM. Find something you know He would want you to be doing and get with it.

You never know...in some act, some deed, some moment of self-forgetfulness, you may be found by Him, slipping up on you, and almost before you know it, you discover that you’re vibrantly and marvelously alive.

This, too, is part of the Easter message, the glorious proclamation of the Christian

Gospel. You never know from what strange quarter and in what strange garb new life may spring forth. You, too, may be surprised by life. 3) It makes you think. It makes you think, in the third place, though, that there is something we must do to take advantage of the Easter surprise, the surprise of new life.

God gives it, out of His prodigal grace, but it’s up to us to appropriate it, WE MUST CLAIM IT, we must accept it, and that means we must be alerted to see it when it appears. God is a wonderful gentleman...with impeccable manners. He simply doesn’t go around bludgeoning people into submission. He can be all around you and be unrecognized.

Mary in the garden looked right at Jesus, talked with him, and continued to think he was the gardener...until His voice revealed His identity. SHE WAS RIGHT THERE WITH HIM AND DIDN’T KNOW WHO HE WAS.

The disciples going to Emmaus walked along and conversed with Him, and didn’t know who He was. They were with Him and didn’t know Him.

All around us there may be wonders, new life, God....if only we have eyes to see.

Several years ago, I went to Colorado for a Church Conference. I’m not sure how I got to be chosen to make the trip.... I think it was because there was a disreputable element in the Conference demanding more representation and that time it landed on me.

Anyways, I got to go. To Colorado. We were being transported by bus from the airport in Denver to the YMCA Camp of the Rockies near Estes Park. It was my first trip to the Rocky Mountains, and oh, they were awesome in their majesty and grandeur.... the aspens were still golden and luminous, the huge boulders up close were almost overwhelming, at least for a flatland, Florida Cracker boy, who had never before seen a rock he couldn’t pick up. In the distance, you could see the snowy peaks...they almost took your breath away. IT WAS SPECTACULAR SCENERY. Every bend in the road brought a fresh gasp of amazement.

But there was a young man on the bus near me who wasn’t paying any attention. He had the look, I thought, the aura of a ministerial student----you can often tell...in the 60’s they all sported beards and sandals...with a peace sign on a chain......

Nowadays the uniform is more likely to be a polo shirt and dock-siders...no socks, of course...with a cross inside the shirt for conspicuous unobtrusiveness. He was a “minnie”[1], all right, probably first semester.... And his eyes were glued to a book he was reading...he was focused in intense concentration. Even when Longs Peak hove into view, in all its regal splendor, he kept his nose buried in that book.

I glanced down long enough to see what he was reading, and you won’t believe it. I recognized the book, because I have a copy of it. It’s on my bookshelf in the office. He was reading “Maker of Heaven and Earth”, by Langdon B. Gilkey, a study of the doctrine of Creation.

I thought, HERE IT WAS, at its most majestic, all around him...the magnificent handiwork of the Maker.... AND HE HAD HIS FACE BURIED IN A DESCRIPTION OF IT. I couldn’t help but think of the story of the Philosophy professor, who when he got to heaven, was confronted by two doors.... On one was written: THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and on the other: A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.... You

can guess which one he chose.

Well, I suggested to my studious bus companion gently---maybe too gently---that he was

missing some incomparable scenery. But he dismissed me with a curt wave of the hand,

“Don’t have time for that now”, he said, “I’ve got to study this material for an exam.”

OH, friends, we can miss more than scenery if we’re not careful. WE CAN MISS LIFE ITSELF EVEN WHEN IT’S ALL-AROUND US. Having it as close as an open window, as close as a companion on the Emmaus Road, we may still miss it.

But those who have eyes attuned and ready to respond to a presented opportunity may

find wonders where others pass right over them.

I heard Fred Craddock of Emory University tell once about his grandmother who lived

with his family when he was growing up. He and his brothers and sisters thought frankly

that she was a little crazy, because in her bedroom she kept paper sacks...pokes, if

you’re from Tennessee...paper sacks filled with old pieces of cloth. She would collect

them from everywhere. Nothing escaped her eye. Old curtain pieces, worn out aprons,

outgrown clothes were all there. Over the years it became a family joke. If they couldn’t find something, they chuckled, Grandma probably had it.

Then one Christmas when Fred was in college, his grandmother presented the family with a beautiful patchwork quilt she had quietly made. As they examined it, they began to recognize the component parts. There were the checkered curtains that had hung in the kitchen years ago....

There was his mother’s old apron, and a sister’s favorite dress as a child. There was even a piece of his jeans, long since worn out and outgrown. His grandmother hadn’t been crazy. She’d simply recognized the beauty the ordinary often holds. She had seen loveliness where everybody else had seen only scraps.

EASTER IS A REMINDER.... It’s a piece of string tied around the finger, if you will....

It says, “Keep your eye open....BE ALERT”

You never know where new life will break forth. You never know WHERE it’s going to erupt in transforming power. YOU’D BETTER BE READY TO CATCH HOLD OF IT WHEN IT APPEARS.

Is there someone here this morning who is looking for a new life? A new start? Is there someone here who would like more than anything to make a fresh, new beginning, to put an end to what HAS been, all the mistakes, the errors, the resentments, the animosities of the past, and start all over again with a whole new slate? THIS IS THE EASTER MESSAGE: It’s possible. It really IS possible. The life you seek is to be found in the Risen Christ. God has done something, something BIG, and absolutely unprecedented--- turned Death Valley into a garden, by the exercise of His grace and power, and what’s more, that reality is FREE, AVAILABLE, AND WAITING NOW to be appropriated by any person in the world who wants to claim it.

I don’t believe there’s any better news in the world.

A number of years ago, John Masefield wrote a play entitled “The Trial of Jesus”. In the play he conveys a sense of the strange power the silent Jesus held over His captors. The one most impressed was Procula, the wife of Pontius Pilate. She tried to save His life, but when she couldn’t do that, she inquired about His death. Did He suffer much? Were His relatives present?

Did His family have need? But one question especially burned in her heart. “What do you think of His claims?” Longinus, a Roman soldier, who was at Calvary answers her. “If a man believes anything to the point of dying on a cross for it, He’ll find others to believe it.”

“Yes”, says Procula, “but that’s not what I’m asking. Do you think He’s dead?”

“No, lady, I don’t.”

“Then where is he? And the tough, hardened soldier answers, “Let loose in the world, lady, where neither Roman nor Jew nor anyone else will ever be able to stop His truth.” This is the faith of Easter. This same Jesus who came to the disciples in the midst of their Death Valley and surprised them with life, has been raised from the dead.

His spirit, let loose in the world, can never be stopped, not by bullets, or armies,

or parliaments, or ideologies, or anything else in all creation. His spirit, let loose in the world, can reach down and lift us out of despair, and futility, and meaninglessness,

and hopelessness, and any other human predicament....

His spirit, let loose in the world, can claim us, and change us and make us what we

were meant to be all along, for time and for ETERNITY. That’s the Easter message. That’s what He wants for you...and that’s what He wants for ME. My God, what a God!

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  Thanks be to God

who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

THE LORD IS RISEN. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

--

[1] A girl’s name meaning “of the mind, intellect”.