Sermon Archive

"State of Happiness", John 20:1-18

Date: April 12, 2009, Easter
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

CHRIST IS RISEN . HE IS RISEN INDEED. ALLELUIA.

It has been a rough week for us here in Eugene , Oregon . First the newspaper said we live in one of the worst places in the country for hair. If you want to have everyday be a “bad hair day” move to Eugene . Then we found out that the State of Oregon is one of the five most unhappy states in the union. I guess this is the place to move if you want to be unhappy—maybe it because of all those bad hair days. I saw a segment of a morning TV program explaining why it is that some states are happier than others. The happiest in the United States is Nebraska , the second happiest, Iowa, the third, Kansas . They asked why? Well, these are pretty frugal, conservative places where people do not spend more than their means, where it is socially suspect to live large and flaunt wealth. They showed the home of Warren Buffett —the richest or second richest man in America . He lives in Omaha , Nebraska , in the same large but not ostentatious house he bought back in the 1950s. One Nebraska official said that the state economy never had the great peaks or valleys of other places, the state did not spend money on building projects for which they didn't have the cash to pay and communities were made up of people who cared about each other. I would like to think that church attendance and religious commitment goes along with well-being. Which were the unhappiest states? Nevada , California , Florida — Oregon the most unhappy. More than eighty per cent of the people in Nevada were born elsewhere. California , Arizona , Florida —for all the wonderful weather, they are places of boom and bust, skyrocketing home values and then plummeting. These are places where people do not know their neighbors, where they do not share common values, and where people often do not look after one another. I thought about this. I know my next-door neighbor on one side but that is about it. The woman who lives next door on the other divorced her husband but I only found this out over a year later when I asked what happened to Scott, her ex-husband. We tried to get a neighborhood party going but found that very few were willing to participate. When it is every man for himself-or woman or nuclear family—then there are not many to care when times are tough. We are quite isolated, many of us, and we are often unhappy and it is definitely not caused by bad hair. And it is also interesting, I think, that these are just the places with low church membership or attendance.

            I read an article this week by Michael Grunwald that described “acceptance and commitment” therapy, the latest advance in behavioral psychology. It urges us to snap out of denial, to accept pain and discomfort but not wallow in it, to focus on our values. A University of Nevada psychologist adds, “We're supposed to be happy-happy, joy-joy all the time…we need to get past that.” Life is not always happy. We can tell ourselves to “look on the sunny side,” that “everything is coming up roses,” that “every cloud has a silver lining,” that the glass is always “half-full.” And that works for a while. But it isn't working right now. In this congregation people have lost jobs, people can't sell houses, those who rely upon investments for their retirement are seeing them worth only half what they were last year. Mike said to me last week, pretty highly paid, pretty much at the top of his profession, “You know when I heard that the workers at the recreational vehicle industries lost their jobs, I thought, well they can move elsewhere and get a job, but then it happened to me…For the first time in my life I check the prices in the super market and pick the lowest cost gallon of milk.” Sotero told me he lost his job at Monaco Coach. He is now without health insurance for his family and he is hoping that the bank will let him refinance his house or he will lose it. Jason who works for Chrysler Corporation wrote me, “I would be lying if I said it hasn't been stressful for me but I know everything happens for the best. I'm just keeping my head down and taking one day at a time.” Teachers are having days cut, students are being asked to pay more, we at Central are looking hard at our budget. Everything I read suggests we are in for a long-haul period of difficult. This is the time when we pray for daily bread and mean it. Food, clothing, shelter but also as Martin Luther puts it, “work and income, good government…true friends and neighbors.”

                I said to Olivier a couple of weeks ago, “You need a pastor and a church community.”    We should not struggle alone. We need other people to care about us and we need God. Tricia wrote me, “Sunday I went to church for the first time in six months…one of the older members did not know who I was—could it have been the chemo cap instead of the long blond hair? I walked up for communion but apparently the pastor had thought I'd be one of those he brought it to at the end. When he saw me at the communion rail, he began to cry.” When God created Adam, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone…” We all need helpmeets and friends. We need people to remind us that we are valuable and our worth is not found in our investments and savings or property or prestige or strength or health. We need each other and we need God. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

            When the theologian Harvey Cox taught a class at Harvard he entitled it “Jesus and the Moral Life.” Cox left the resurrection off the syllabus he handed to the students. One reason he gave is that the students came from a variety of backgrounds, many of no religion. Another was that the resurrection was not historically verifiable. So he ended his course with the crucifixion. His students, many of them not Christian, still pressed him on the issue of the resurrection. They wanted to know why he was leaving out the climax to the story in the Gospels. Cox put the resurrection back on the syllabus but not before he did much study on what the New Testament was saying about Jesus' resurrection. One of the big surprises he discovered was that Jesus' resurrection was not about immortality—not about going to heaven after you die. The resurrection of Jesus was really about this world. It answers the question, “How then shall we live?” The resurrection is about justice. The callous oppressors do not have the last word. God is not mocked. Evil will be punished and good will win out. The mighty are toppled from their thrones and those of low degree lifted up. The resurrection is about meaning. Our lives have worth because we are people created by God, redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and vindicated by his resurrection. No one can take away our dignity and self-worth. Joe said to me this week that his girlfriend of some years had left him for another man. He wondered, “What is wrong with me; why can't I find a woman who will love me?” I have heard that from other young men, young women—“why can't I find my life's partner?” From workers looking for a job—“why can't I find my life's work?” From older people—“why do I keep on living when my friends are gone?” From many who wonder—“why can't I find my life's meaning, happiness, fulfillment, contentment?” “What is wrong with me?” The resurrection is about living our life knowing that we have a special purpose, each one of us, to glorify God. Glorify God in your bodies, your minds, your spirits. Be the men and women you were created to be. Understand that God is with you now and will never abandon you.   “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's,” St Paul writes.   Nothing in all creation, and you can list all the powers and principalities that threaten you, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord.

            We need community, family, friends, people who care about us, who are willing to accept us as we are—as fragile human beings. A campus pastor said that a young woman Lauren came to service two years after leaving a severe addiction. She had grown up in church, attended youth group and knew all the stories. But for all the messages of grace she had heard, she had not experienced it. Lauren had been told of an empty tomb but never understood what it meant. In joining that campus community she experienced grace. Her life is not perfect but she has a community she can trust as she explores a full life in Christ, one who calls her out to experience the empty tomb not as the end of the story of salvation but the beginning. The pastor added, “This generation is not looking for a church—they are looking for Jesus.” We all are. We need each other; we need a risen Lord. We need the message of Christ's resurrection in our lives—not the end but our beginning. We can be happy—the Bible word also means “Blessed”--even with bad hair living in a the state that ranks last for happiness. We can be content because we have each other and we have Jesus. Amen.

CHRIST IS RISEN . HE IS RISEN INDEED. ALLELUIA.

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