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"LEAPING IN LENT"
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT:
MATTHEW 16:21-28

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 24, 2008

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT/LEAP YEAR WEEK

Scripture Text: 21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" 23Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." -- (New International Version)

Message: A familiar old "preacher story" concerns a man who tumbled over the edge of a cliff. As he began to fall, he was able to reach out and grab the branch of a tree that grew from the side of the cliff. There he hung with a thousand-foot drop below. He shouted until he was hoarse but no one came. His arms were tiring. In desperation he looked up to the sky and said, "God, if you're really there, save me!" Miraculously, a gentle voice spoke from above: "I'm here, son. I'll save you. Just let go of the branch." The man looked down at the distant ground so far below him. Then he looked back at the sky and said, "Is there anybody else up there?"
While I'm not suggesting that Christians put God to a foolish test in regard to the physical law of gravity, I do want to say that in the realm of the spirit God really does want us to let go of the branch. Faith, at its essence, is trusting God - trusting God even when trusting God doesn't make logical sense.

Thomas Aquinas was a brilliant scholar who lived near the end of what are traditionally called the "Dark Ages" in Europe. In fact, it was Thomas' dazzling intellect that, in a substantial way, helped Europe emerge from five centuries of stagnation. His scholarship proved to be the opening chapter of a much better life for millions, a new era which is termed the Renaissance. Thomas was a thinker extraordinaire, the Albert Einstein of the 13th century. His writings include some of the most thoughtful essays, on a vast array of subjects -- including theology -- ever produced by a human mind. But when Thomas had exhausted all the resources of his considerable cranium, he realized that he could not prove the existence of God. So Thomas boldly took what he called a "leap of faith" - into the arms of a loving Savior. St. Thomas Aquinas was smart enough -- to simply trust God.

During the first half of the most recently-completed century, the 20th, there was another brilliant theologian, a man named Karl Barth. Barth's insights into the Scriptures and their implications were academically deep and intellectually challenging to great religious scholars the world over. But as Barth neared the end of a long and distinguished career as a professor of Christian thought, someone asked him if he might attempt to sum up, in a single sentence, the essence of his lifetime of theological exploration. Barth responded with these words: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Another very smart man - a man smart enough to recognize that faith, at its essence, is simple.

Peter, one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus, wasn't an intellectual giant. But he was definitely a street-smart individual, a man of "common sense." As he followed after Jesus, he saw many strange things - miracles. A boatload of fish netted where none had been moments before. The blind healed, the lame walking. A little boy's lunch expanding to feed a crowd of 5,000. A man who walked on water. So when Jesus said to his disciples, "Who am I?" Peter was ready with the obvious answer. He hadn't rolled into Galilee on a wagonload of pumpkins. "You're the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God here on earth." That particular interchange with Jesus took place, chronologically, immediately prior to the events of our Scripture text for today's message.
That scripture text picks up as Jesus, Peter and the other disciples are continuing that same discussion. Jesus explains he is about to die - and then to be resurrected. And Peter's mind rebels against those thoughts. If Jesus really is the Son of God -- well, obviously God can't die. If He did, then He wouldn't really be God, would He? And then this "resurrection" business. Nobody comes back from the dead. It's never been done. So Peter, an apostle of common sense, takes Jesus aside and says, "No!" What you're saying is nonsense, Jesus. Such things can't happen.
Just as it was for Peter 2,000 years ago, Christian faith continues to be frustrating to many today. Our religion is grounded, at least in part, in reason. We don't believe in fairy tales. Jehovah-God is a God of sanity, logic, and order. He's not some sort of capricious, whimsical deity who changes his mind with each new day, like the ancient gods of Greece and Rome - or like the many deities believed in by those who follow the various branches of Hinduism today.

But on the other hand, our God is not bound by logic and reason. When it's essential to His loving plan for human redemption, God can transcend the natural laws which He has put into place. If and when a miracle is really needed, God is fully capable of supplying such. But we humans, with our finite minds, cannot easily go there. We're comfortable with a predictable God. We become uncomfortable when God moves "outside the box" of human reason.

As I said earlier, faith, at its essence, is trusting God even when trusting God doesn't make logical sense. It's trusting that Jesus knows what he's doing when he says to those mourning Lazarus, "Take away the stone," even though everybody there is fully aware that Lazarus has been dead for four full days and to do so will certainly unleash a foul odor. It's believing that your brother-in-law is going to come to Christ because you pray daily for his salvation - even though he's not yet done so despite 14 years of daily, fervent prayer. It's accepting that God has a purpose in your wife's debilitating illness, even though you know there are months, perhaps years, of suffering ahead for both of you. Sometimes, as someone far smarter than me has said, faith requires that we suspend our disbelief.

Beginning in the fifth century A. D. in Ireland, long before "equal rights" were ever envisioned, young women were legally allowed to propose marriage to young men on February 29th. If a man refused his lady's proposal, he could be fined in court. The usual social customs were suspended on Leap Year Day, once each four years.

Leap Year Day is this Friday upcoming. So I'm dubbing this week, in the midst of the Christian season of Lent, "Leap Week." And I would dare to suggest that "Leap Week" presents a special opportunity for you to make a "leap of faith" into the arms of Jesus Christ. Maybe you're the kind of person who's not prone to illogical acts - strange things like believing in a man who rose from the dead 2,000 years ago. But today I invite you to suspend your disbelief. Trust God even though in your mind trusting God might not make sense. Take a leap of faith this week. It'll carry you all the way into eternity! Amen.

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