Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton VA
February 10, 2019
Pastor Robert McCarty
February without Lent does not happen all that often. It seems like it should be a festival where anything could happen in a February without Lent. So we are going to sing an Easter hymn as the hymn of the day. Because it is February without Lent. A miraculous catch of fish, could it be that this catch of fish actually happened in a February without Lent. Well I got that at least half right as there was not yet Lent when Jesus went out and gathered his followers. Remember last year, this Sunday would have been Transfiguration Sunday and Lent started on Valentines Day. This year we have another 24 days until Lent. It’s not Lent yet.
The NFL held a football game without a terribly blown call or a controversial overturned catch or non catch. Anything can happen in a February without Lent. For the Souper Bowl of Caring we gathered 91 items. And nationwide folks gathered 4 million (Anything can happen in a February without Lent) 4,468,998 pounds of food. Someone estimated the value of what was collected at 7.8 million dollars. A little over three thousand groups like Christ Lutheran participated to benefit 2,000 charities. That is an increadible catch of fish. Anything can happen in a February without Lent.
Some of you last week noticed that the bulletin listed Tom D--- as our assisting minister for today. The Church secretary, treasurer and a volunteer were in the church office. It sounds like a set up for a joke, but this is the way they told me the story. They talked amongst themselves in the church office about snowbirds. (Retirees join the realm of snowbirds when they move to Florida during a couple of months during winter.) The D---’s name came up. They now go back and forth, north-south. And talking about them, Br--- typed into the bulletin Tom D--- as our assisting minister instead of Tom M---. All sorts of things are going on in this February without Lent. Br--- joked with me this week as she told the story that she’s surprised B-- T---’s name did not end up in the bulletin someway, somehow. B--- and R---, apparently were also at one time snowbirds. I remember her as my first funeral at Christ Lutheran ten years ago. He died two and a half years ago. B---’s name ending up in the bulletin. Anything can happen in a February without Lent. The resurrection day has to happen someday. So not just B--- T---’s name in our bulletin but B--- T--- in our gathering, walking in those doors. That is what anything means.
Besides B--- and anything can happen in February without Lent, you have another reason to sing an Easter Hymn as our hymn of the day. The second lesson for today fills our ears with Paul’s words of the resurrection day.
"For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.... Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."
You have to realize when you believe that anything can happen, then you live in anticipation. And if you anticipate the right things, you live in hope. Donuts in the worship space offers us today a small blessing. Jesus rising from the dead, offers us a huge blessing. Anything can happen means miracles become possible, even expected. Anticipation has a powerful effect to move us forward on the edge of our seat.
These first disciples will enter into a life with Jesus full of anticipation. With Jesus anything can happen and this miraculous catch of fish offers just a quick preview of what anything will look like. Jesus will feed the multitudes. He will heal the sick. Raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus will humble the wise and proud with his teachings. He will walk on water and calm the sea and the storms. With Jesus anything can happen and a. whole lot will happen.
These first disciples will enter into a life with Jesus full of anticipation. With Jesus anything can happen and this miraculous catch of fish offers just a quick preview of what anything will look like. Jesus will feed the multitudes. He will heal the sick. Raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus will humble the wise and proud with his teachings. He will walk on water and calm the sea and the storms. With Jesus anything can happen and a. whole lot will happen.
Anticipation that anything can happen does not mean it will happen. That anything can happen does not mean everything will happen. I know that is a bummer. Anticipation means that it could happen. That miracles could happen like an incredible catch of fish or a dead man rising up out of the grave. It means we get to live in expectation that miracles will happen, so maybe, just maybe the miracle we want to happen will happen.
D--- and I and friends lived in that expectation full of cautious hope for two weeks before B--- died. D--- sat by his side daily. I drove to the UVA hospital just about every other day. We lived in hope of miracles because we know they happen. B--- reached that point where every day was a miracle. And we wanted one more day and then we dared hope for two, because Jesus teaches us to live in anticipation that anything is possible.
B--- died Saturday a week ago. We continue to hold you in prayer D---, you and P---, and if you don’t mind, I want to tell folks want happened last week at the graveside service. We held a graveside service on Tuesday and I stood at the head of coffin, my toes three inches from the grave. What a place of holy privilege you give me when I get to stand with my toes three inches from your grave and I get to look down in that space and I think Jesus sanctified this grave. Jesus sanctified this grave, and Boyd’s grave and Rose’s grave and Amelia’s grave and Milton’s and Betty’s and Raymond’s and Anne's. Three inches from the grave and I am looking down into that holy space and D--- is sitting three feet away from me and we hear the grave and the coffin creak, groan. Just like your house groans as it settles and expands in the heat, or whistles in the wind. We heard the grave—somewhere between a creak and a groan. And I think listening to that sound, this grave is temporary just like our homes are temporary. That’s what the resurrection means, graves that are temporary because Jesus will one day come and empty them out, and we will live.
D--- had a similar thought. He heard that sound of the earth and he thought, wouldn’t it just be like B--- to—at his own funeral—sit up and say “fooled ya.” Give us all a heart attack. Anything is possible in February without Lent. Or said another way, the resurrection day has to happen sometime, so why not today. B---- sit up and say “fooled ya” or walk into this worship and say “fooled ya.” Jesus to stretch out his hands and pronounce today, this day, is my victory. We live in that anticipation, that anything is possible, miracles happen and the dead will be raised. All possible one day, some day.
I do not need to live in a world where anything is possible. Frankly there are some things that I would rather not see. But I want to live in a world where miracles happen, the sick become healthy and are cured, where the dead live. I want to live in a world with miraculous catches of fish and 4 million pounds of food collected in a couple of weekends. I want to live with Jesus active in the world and in our lives.
So I will end this message with a prediction, with a prophecy. The resurrection day, the return of Christ, our judgement day and triumphal entry into the kingdom of heaven will happen in a February without Lent, anythings possible in a February without lent. I anticipate that and I share it with you because then on that day lent will be no more, crying and tears and death will be no more. That is my prediction, my prophecy the resurrection day will happen in a February without lent. One day, someday, you will have to let me know, whether or not I am right.
Amen.
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