“Never Underestimate God’s Creativity”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March 27, 2016

Centenary United Methodist Church 

I Corinthians 15:12-14, 20-23; Luke 24:1-12

Easter Sunday

    This morning we are going to consider what Jesus was communicating with his appearances following his death on the cross. Living beyond this life has been a dream of humanity since the beginning of our species. The Jews looked upon themselves as God's Chosen People.  Through their exclusive relationship with God, their salvation was assured.

    Christians have also developed a theological formula concerning their personal salvation. How many sermons have we heard about our exclusive relationship with God? We have heard preachers say, "Unless you are born again, you cannot be saved."  "Unless you believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, Christ, you cannot be saved."  "Unless you repent of your sins, you will not enter the Kingdom of God."

    Jesus came on the scene two thousand years ago and preached a different message from the one he inherited from his parents and his culture.  He also taught his listeners a message that is different from sermons that are preached today from a number of Christian pulpits.

    Jesus' message was influenced from having several deeply personal encounters with God. These were as life-changing as those when patients leave their bodies during surgery. In front of the disciples, Jesus was seen speaking with Moses and Elijah on Mt. Tabor -- the Mount of Transfiguration. The group then heard the voice of God coming from a cloud much like Jesus experienced at this baptism. (Matthew 17:3)  

    These experiences helped Jesus to waste little time distancing himself from the image of God that he inherited and from the truth contained in a number of commands that were believed to have come from God.  He said it this way, "You have heard it said 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth' but now I say to you, 'Do not respond with hostility toward anyone who has offended you.'"  (Matthew 5:38)

    Jesus taught a new interpretation of God to his listeners that had never been heard before in any culture.  The God he was leaving behind was judgmental, moody and desired obedience to lots of rules.  Jesus taught his followers not to judge anyone.  He said, "First take the log out of your own eye so you can see clearly to remove the speck from the eye of someone else." (Matthew 7:5)  Jesus gave to humanity an entirely different blueprint for living.  Obedience to the Laws was enhanced by the teaching of giving away unencumbered love to everyone.

    We see Jesus displaying his love when we call to mind the episode with one of the thieves that hung next to him on another cross. This man had not repented of his sins.  He had not accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  He had not been a follower of Jesus. He merely made an observation about the innocence of Jesus and then made a request,  "Remember me when you enter your Kingdom." Jesus responded, "I promise you that today you will be with me in paradise."

    When it comes to the SIZE of God's love, compassion and understanding, many of us far underestimate the magnitude of God's creativity.  If we understood God the way Jesus did, we would never judge anyone because of what they think, do or say. All of us are on a different level of our spiritual development and engaged in our own fantasies about living.

      We are all saved from this illusionary world the moment we leave our bodies.  God created our physical world and we are the ones that used our imaginations to create our cities, our banking industry, our various modes of transportation, our roads and bridges and our ability to fly anywhere in the world.  It is as if God said, "Go play in the imaginary world that I have created for you and have a wonderful time doing so."  This is exactly what human creativity has been doing since the advent of the wheel. 

    Our loving, compassionate Creator would never place our eternal destiny at risk.  We become lost and make mistakes in judgment on a weekly basis; why would God hinge what we do with our lives to a final statement of our identity. When our playtime is over, we all go home.  We may ask,  "How can anyone like Adolph Hitler graduate from this life along with the rest of us?"  Few of us want to believe that this is a possibility.  However, by not having a universal understanding that everyone goes home, we are underestimating God's creativity.

    People can quote Scripture after Scripture that would support the conclusion that only the righteous survive to go on to the next realm.  Just as Jesus frequently set aside Scriptures, God's love also liberates us from how numerous Scriptures have installed fear in us rather than the message of serve one another.   Jesus' appearances after his death are testimony to this.  "Do you love me, Peter?"  After Peter responded with "Yes," Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." (John 21:17)

    Once Jesus was being confronted by the Pharisees about the truth he was teaching and he said to them,  "You do not know where I came from, nor do you know where I am going.  You make judgments in a purely human way; I pass judgment on no one!" (John 8:14b-15) If Jesus does not pass judgment on anyone, what are we thinking and feeling when we do it?

    We have to remember that living beyond this life is not a reward because of our good behavior.  It is not even a gift because we heard the words, "Well done my good and faithful servant."  We enjoy our physical lives because God gave all people a thimble-full of imaginary power to see how and what they can do with it.

    Just because some of us act as though we do not have an ounce of love within us or we refuse to behave decently, does not mean that God is prepared to throw us under the bus. God would respond with education not punishment.  Why would God punish anyone for anything knowing that their only crime is ignorance? That is why Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many rooms."  One of those rooms just may be reserved for those who need remedial help from summer school.

    The mistake that ISIL is making on the world's stage at the moment is that they have completely underestimated God's creativity.  Their thinking is 3,500 years old.  They are acting more like the way Joshua did when he believed God sent the Israelites into the promised land to take the land and destroy the lives of everybody that had settled there.  Think of how beautifully the people of all ages and cultures have evolved into wonderful communities since those earlier days.

    The two brothers who entered the airport in Brussels this past week and committed suicide by detonating the explosives they were carrying, witnessed a transition.  Suddenly, they and those they thought they had killed found themselves together.  That moment is when the two bombers experienced a far different truth from what they had been trained to believe.  Nothing was lost but their bodies that one day they would discard.

      What is interesting about God's creativity is that it has nothing to do with our thoughts about it.  The transition from this life happens for everyone because leaving our physical forms is part of creation.  This process is as automatic as the sun rising every morning without any beliefs or faith playing a role in causing that to happen. When we die, our playtime has ended.  This can happen in a matter of hours after we are born or after living a long time.

    Oddly enough, the Brussels' bombers and others like them share the same lack of understanding about death as did the disciples in our Scripture lesson today. A large group of women learned that Jesus was alive.  They came running to tell the disciples about the empty tomb and they were greeted with this: "You women have taken leave of your senses.  We do not believe you!"  (Luke 24:11)  Belief has never been a requirement for truth to be true.

    There is a lingering question to consider.  If we are all in this together and we all survive this life, what happens to justice?  Where is the fairness?  What happens to those who have misused their thimble-full of imaginary power?  

    Again, we call to mind the words that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, "You religious-minded Pharisees make judgments in a purely human way; I pass judgment on no one!"  Part of God's creative process is the gradual spiritual evolution of every one of us. We cannot fake our growth.

    What greater justice could there be than to be exactly who we are and where we are at any given time while our sojourn takes us along a path toward greater understanding and maturity that is infinite in its duration? If we have never learned to love or experience laughter, joy, peace and happiness, we have to live with who and what we have become.  We cannot exhaust God's patience even when we live out of total ignorance.  

    ISIL's primitive strategies for taking over the world gain absolutely nothing even if they succeed.  (Matthew 16:26)  Death and destruction in the name of our Creator has no end-game.  Perhaps later, each one of them that have had their behavior and thoughts motivated by this understanding, will be tested again by being given another thimble-full of illusionary power to see if he or she can play with others without being a bully on the playground. 

    What happens in this world is by God's design, not ours.  We have nothing to say about it.  We can only participate in life with attitudes that reflect our understanding of the nature of God.  Jesus was not interested in teaching more iron-clad beliefs.  He was interested in life-style and attitude changes that mirror compassion and forgiveness. Jesus was not into labels like Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian or Muslim.

    All of us grow in the direction of our strongest desires, wants and needs. We can always change direction when our strongest urges do not provide the peace, happiness and the loving spirit that we had imagined they would.

      This truth remains -- it is God's love that allows our spirits to continue their growth after we leave our limited physical forms.  This is the truth that Jesus was communicating through his appearances.  Truth does not require anything from anyone for truth to remain the truth for everyone.