|
|
|
Sunday March 28, 2010 "The End of the Beginning" Luke 19: 28-40 |
 |
|
Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 3/31/2010 10:17 AM | | It was sometime between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning when the phone rang. It’s never good news when the phone rings between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning.Good news can wait at least a few hours, but bad news doesn’t wait.Before I answered the phone I knew who it was, and I was right. There was a pause and in a voice choked with emotion, my friend Linda said simply, “It’s time. Can you come to the hospital?” I said “Of course, I’ll be there as fast as I can.”As I made my way to the hospital, the last 3 years ran through my mind. Linda was the wife of a good friend of mine named Mike. Mike was an artist of national, even international, renown, but I didn’t know that when I first met him. He was simply a guy who came to the noon time Men’s Bible study I was facilitating at the church where I served. After the meeting, we sat and chatted for almost an hour. Mike had told the group that the day before, he had been diagnosed with cancer, and he was going back the next day to get the full rundown of what the doctors knew. He was upbeat, but still knew that he needed the prayers and presence of his church.The news the next day was not good. The doctors said he had six months to live, tops. That afternoon we talked again, and this time we did talk about cancer and prayer and the church. And he told me that he would not die in six months, he had things that he needed to do; people he needed to take care of; grandchildren he needed to see born. And I believed him.He did not die in six months. He went in and out of remission. He had stretches where he felt great. He had stretches where he did not. But he pressed on with the things he needed to do.Over the next three years we became good friends.He was only supposed to live for 6 months, but he kept on and on. His will to live was not because he was afraid to die – many times he welcomed it warmly, especially near the very end. His will to live was based entirely on preparing the people he loved to move on without him. He would not give in to death until the time was right.The day before the phone call came, I stopped by Mike and Linda’s highrise apartment at Colony Square. Mike was weak but smiling. A hospital bed had been moved into the living room where he had a spectacular view of Atlanta through floor to ceiling windows.Linda knew that he was in pain and struggling to hang on. She knew it was time to let him know that he had done everything that he could, everything that had been asked of him, everything. And so we told him that if he was ready, it was time to let go and be with God. He had indeed, fought the good fight, and it was time to go home. He smiled, took our hands and simply said, “Thank you.”Linda was a bit overcome and left the room. I moved to the foot of the bed and Mike looked up at me and started to laugh. I asked what was so funny. “Not funny,” he said, “but amazing.”“What?” I asked.Now it was his turn to be puzzled. He asked, “Don’t you see them?”“See who? There’s no one here but us.”“No,” he said, “They’re standing all around you, all around the bed… I don’t know who they are, but that’s okay. It’s good they’re here. Really good.” And then he smiled and drifted off to sleep.When I got to the hospital, Mike was in a room, having arrived several hours before. Linda and Mike’s doctor were with him. He was comatose and breathing only with the aid of a ventilator.The doctor took me aside and explained the situation. I will be honest, I didn’t like this doctor. Neither did Linda. He was gruff, standoffish and bordered on being insensitive most of the time. His explanation of the situation did not surprise me, almost devoid of emotion and caring. The long and short of it was, Mike was only being kept alive by artificial means and there was no hope that he would rebound this time. It was time, he said, “to pull the plug.”I resisted the urge to say, “Really? Pull the plug? You couldn’t have said it any better than that?”I went back in and explained to Linda what the doctor had told me, but left out the phrase “pull the plug.” After a time, she nodded and said, “Yes. It’s time.”We read Mike’s favorite Psalm together, she signed a few forms, and a team came in to begin preparations. We prayed with Mike once last time and waited in the hall. When we were called back in, he was unhooked from any tubes and breathing shallowly. Linda held his hand and within 5 mintues, he was gone.After a few minutes, we went out in the hall to wait. There were chairs and we sat. The doctor came by and looked down on us. He said, “I know how hard that was.”Linda started to cry and suddenly said, “I can’t believe we did that – we ended it all. I can’t believe we turned everything off!”The doctor, this doctor who I had difficulty connecting with, this doctor whose bedside manner appalled me, kneeled down in front of Linda, took her hands in his and looking into her eyes, said, “I prefer to think we turned something on. It is not the end…it is only the end of the beginning.” He gave her a hug and was gone.The end of the beginning. I will never forget those words and I will never forget that moment. And I will never forget that doctor.The end of the beginning.Mike didn’t want to die, but he accepted his lot and in the three years I knew him, Mike taught me something very important: he taught me how to die.He knew that he was here for a reason and worked hard to make sure he lived up to why God had put him here. And when he was sure that he had done what could, he let go and went home. 2 and ½ years after the doctors told him he would.Mike was a special person to me, but he was not unique. In the course of my ministry I have met others who showed the same sort of dignity and perseverance that Mike showed me. I have met others who defied doctors expectations because they still had things they knew needed to be done. I have met others who showed their selflessness in the same way, because make no mistake, sometimes the easy way is sometimes to simply say, “I’m done” and accept death. Sometimes it’s harder to keep fighting, but I have met many who do just that, not for themselves, but for the people they love.I think of Mike quite often, but I especially think of Mike on Palm Sunday.Because on Palm Sunday, I think Jesus is sending the same message that Mike sent to me: there are things that he must make sure are done, and when they are done when he has done everything that he can - then, he will accept his lot, accept the scenario that God laid for him, he will accept death on a cross on Good Friday.This passage is overflowing with the messages that Jesus wants to send to the people to whom he has been ministering. Message that he wants to make sure get through. He knows that his time is short and that he needs to make sure that he has done everything he possibly can to make sure that he did what he was supposed to do. He needs to let people know that he is the messiah.It is the beginning of the Passover festival in Jerusalem. Faithful Jews from all over would be making their pilgrimage to the Holy City. The streets would be choked full with travelers and pilgrims. The markets would be overflowing with the foods and spices needed to prepare the meal that would be shared in a 1000 different homes and camps. The atmosphere would be loud and joyous. The perfect time for Jesus to make this all important journey into Jerusalem.He rides in on a donkey, a donkey willingly given up by it’s owner. The symbolism is strong: the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible have spoken of this entrance. The messiah comes on the colt of a donkey, in peace and humility. The gathered faithful would know this. They did not come lightly to be part of the Passover in Jerusalem. They come because they take seriously their faith and their religion. They would understand.And the unfolding scene makes it clear that they do understand. They shout hosannas; they quote Psalm 18, just as we quoted it during the call to worship – “Blessed is the name of the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”; the honor his kingship by laying their cloaks and palm fronds down in front of him, providing a royal, welcoming pathway into the city.The Pharisees understand, too and are aghast. They cannot believe that Jesus has the gall to allow this display, a display reserved for a king, or even, the king of kings, the messiah.Jesus responds to them with by harkening back to another Hebrew Bible writing from the book of Habakkuk. And it is a pointed reference – listen:“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm! You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.”So here is Jesus, sending a final message to the people of Israel that he is indeed the messiah and condemning the temple leadership who put their own gain above God’s will. In so doing these things, he is doing what he has been sent to do. He is doing what God would have him do. He is fulfilling his role that he was born for. He is making sure that he does what he needs to do before it is his time to die.It is indeed, the end of the beginning for Jesus. He moves now quickly to a sham trial and torture and death. But he shows us clearly on the day we call Palm Sunday, and during Holy Week, that death is not to be feared if we take every opportunity to accomplish God’s will for our lives.I spent a lot more time this morning on my friend Mike than I have on Jesus. That’s because I saw in Mike a living out of what Jesus would have us do. What Jesus himself did. Don’t waste life. Use it to be about God’s business; use your talents and your gifts as fully and as completely as you can; use your time to do the best you can, to be the best you can, to make sure God can speak whatever needs to be spoken through you.I have wondered at times if all this is easier when you know that your time is short. If Mike did not get his diagnosis, would his actions and his art have gone in the direction they did? If Jesus did not know what would happen in Jerusalem, would he have provoked the temple leadership? Would he have taken the bold symbolic steps he took?I have sat with many people who knew their time was short, and my experience with these faithful folks is first, that they want to make sure they use their time wisely and second, that they know when their labors are done and they have done what they could, it’s okay to say goodbye to this life. It’s okay to recognize that it is the end of the beginning, and at the same time, the beginning of a wonderful new journey.Palm Sunday gives us pause to reflect on the hardships that Jesus went through in the last week of his earthly life. It should also give us pause to reflect on how we are living our lives.Jesus knew what was facing him, and he employed his time to its best use. We do not know what is facing us, yet we are called to do the same, no matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter what faces us.It is the end of the beginning – a perfect time to start.Let us pray: Gracious and faithful God, we seek to follow Jesus’ example and commit ourselves to do what you would have us do. Help us to move forward today in doing the things that you ask of us. And may we move forward with the full knowledge that there are urgent needs with which can help, lonely people to whom we can minister, hungry seekers with whom we can share. Help us to live each day to it’s fullest so that when we that final day comes for us, we can smile and say, “Thank you.” It is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
|
|
 | |