Faith Comes By Hearing

Romans 10:17 – and hearing by the Word of God

April 25, 1999 - Annual Meeting Sunday

Acts 2; John 10:1-10; Psalm 23

On the front page of yesterday's Globe there was a ringing Christian testimony. Out of the tragedy of this week in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, again and again we heard and saw Christian faith in action. This was just one story, the story of a true martyr:

Last Sunday morning Cassie Bernall went to church. Whatever else went on while she was there, evidently Cassie was listening to the Shepherd. For sometime after she got home she sat down at her desk, this beautiful seventeen-year-old high school senior, and wrote these words of faith on a little note pad that had advertisements on it for caps and gowns and other graduation things– these words:

Now I have given up on everything else - I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.

Cassie Bernall had no way of knowing what was going to happen two days later. Tuesday she was in the library at Columbine High School when the tragedy that has shocked our nation began to unfold. She opened her Bible and began to read. One of the killers stopped in front of her and asked, "Do you believe in God?"

Loud enough for her classmates to hear, Cassie answered, "Yes, I believe in God!"

The gunman mockingly asked her, "Why?" and then before she could answer, he shot her dead. Cassie died for her faith.

There is no way to 'make sense' of killing like this. I will not believe that God wills evil in order to get greater good. But the fact is that after the killing was over, and the disbelief and mourning began to set in, Cassie's younger brother found what she had written after church last Sunday. Cassie had died in the faith, and perhaps specifically FOR her faith. Cassie was a martyr. Listen again:

Now I have given up on everything else - I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.

These words clearly echo Philippians 3:10: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

These words echo the mission statement of our church: To know God! And what ought to be the mission statement of every Christian!

ABUNDANT LIFE BEGINS WITH LISTENING

It is obvious that Cassie had been listening to the Shepherd: ((FAITH COMES BY HEARING. MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE. ))

We are influenced by what we hear. Making a distinction between hearing, and listening, we become what we listen to. How important that we not only hear, but listen to the Good Shepherd.

It is also sadly obvious that the two young men who did the killing were listening to voices that were not the Good Shepherd's.

ABUNDANT LIFE BEGINS WITH LISTENING

Jesus says that he leads his sheep– they follow him– go in and out and find pasture. The end result is abundance. "I have come," Jesus said, "that they might have life, and have it abundantly– to the full." (John 10:10)

HOW DO WE HEAR? HOW DO WE LISTEN? HOW DO WE FOLLOW?

. . . THREE MILE AN HOUR GOD

((It is always important to keep the Shepherd in view– at the center. It is always important to listen for his voice. But it is particularly important in the crisis times, and in the times of choosing, decision times. We never know when a crisis will come.))

THE POST RESURRECTION APPEARANCES HAVE A PATTERN:

  1. THE WORD,
  2. THE FELLOWSHIP
  3. THE BREAKING OF BREAD

At the end of Peter's sermon in Acts 2 is this pattern repeated and embellished a bit. Luke tells us:

((How do we come to know and trust the Shepherd? How do we find the Gate to the sheep? How do I find my way in a new phase in my life? How does the church chart a course to life more and more abundant? )) There's the formula:

  1. The Word
  2. The Fellowship
  3. The Breaking of Bread
  4. The Prayers

God will lead you. God will lead me. God will lead us– in and out to green pastures and still waters, and even through the valleys as we listen for his voice, the voice we know.

This is true in individual lives. People do not make a statement of consecration such as Cassie Bernall made lightly. And even though it seems such a waste– a tragedy beyond understanding- I know in the depths of my being that Cassie's consecration was not wasted. It is something precious beyond words. And given the horror of that day, can you imagine the comfort such words bring to Cassie's parents? Bertha Munro stated as her deepest conviction: GOD WILL NOT WASTE A CONSECRATED LIFE!

This is also true for the Body of Christ, and for individual congregations. Abundant life begins when we listen for the Shepherd's guidance.

If I could be explicit on the Annual Meeting Sunday, and speak particularly to the Wollaston situation– it is important that the church listen for the voice of the Shepherd during this time of transition. It would be great if God would write instructions in the sky, or speak with an audible voice from heaven. We know that isn't usually the way He works. But God does speak.

I DON'T HAVE ANY PROFOUND WORD ABOUT THIS WEEK'S TRAGEDY

BUT I DO KNOW GOD IS WAITING TO USE PEOPLE WHO WILL LET HIS LOVE SHINE THROUGH THEM.

Probably you have thought about how it took tragedy for faith and love to come out into plain view. Tragedy seems to bring out the best as well as the worst in people. But, too, the thought that comes to us all is– why can't we at least try to show some love here in Quincy where THANK GOD there has not been a tragedy? Why can't we pray for our neighbors, and support one another in love and deeds of kindness? Thoughts like that come from tragedies like this week's. CAN WE FIND A 'BREAK-THROUGH' INTO SHOWING OUR LOVE??

IT HAPPENED TO ESTHER . . . she found a way to "break through" into active caring for others, as she heard the Shepherd's voice.

IT WILL HAPPEN WHENEVER THE SHEEP LISTEN FOR THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE

Three years ago there was a terrible tragedy somewhat like this week's in a little village in Scotland. In Dunblane a violent man shot sixteen little children and a teacher, and like Columbine High's sorrow, shocked the world.

In a book called Everyday Passions Rev Dorothy McRae-McMahon lifted out an incident that followed that shooting. She told of how soon after the massacre the minister of the local Church of Scotland was trying to think about God and life as he walked home one night. Her book quotes him as saying:

'As I was reflecting on all this, I made my way to the school gates which had become a center of devotion, transformed by the floral and other offerings placed there by residents and strangers alike. As I approached, the street outside the school was deserted apart from a handful of police officers, and a gang of youths aged, I suppose, about seventeen to twenty. As I watched, they took from their pockets sixteen night lights one for each dead child and, kneeling on the damp pavement, arranged them in a circle and then lit them, using glowing cigarettes to do so.

'They stood around the candles for a moment, then one of them said, 'I suppose somebody should say something.¹ As they wondered how to do it, one of them spotted me, identified me as a minister and called me over with the words, 'You'll know what to say.¹ Of course, the reality was quite different. As I stood there, tears streaming down my face, I had no idea what to say, or how to say it. Words had not been especially useful to me, or anyone else, in this crisis.

'So we stood, holding on to each other for a moment, and then I said a brief prayer. That was the catalyst to enable them to start praying. A question came first: 'What kind of world is this?¹ Another asked, 'Is there any hope?¹ Someone said, 'I wish I could trust God.¹ 'I¹ll need to change,¹ said a fourth one. As he did so, he looked first at me and then glanced over his shoulder to the police who were on duty. He reached in his pocket and I could see he had a knife. He knelt again by the ring of candles and quietly said, 'I¹ll not be needing this now,¹ as he tucked it away under some of the flowers lying nearby. One of the others produced what looked like a piece of chain and did the same. We stood silently for a moment and then went our separate ways.¹

ABUNDANT LIFE BEGINS WITH LISTENING

We hear what we listen for . . .

PRAYER (contemporary language)

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;
Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us
each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the
Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.

#100 - The Lord's My Shepherd (Scottish Psalter, Crimond)