Community Church Sermons

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, Year C – July 15, 2001

"Beam Me Up, Jesus!”

Colossians 1:1-14

As Sandy and I get ready to head up to New England in a few weeks for a little vacation, I find myself cringing a bit about the 15-hour long drive from here to there. Quite often, we drive the 950 miles all in one day on the rather shaky theory that completely ruining one day is somehow better than partially ruining two.

It would be so much better if there was a quicker and less painful way to get from Tennessee to Massachusetts. Although we do enjoy the cultural experiences of the long ride – the beautiful billboards that decorate this great land of ours and block out those ugly mountains, the joy of learning that America is just one big fast-food restaurant with branch offices at every interchange, the discovery that – while you can’t keep a good Oldies station tuned on your car radio for very long on your way up I-81 through Virginia – you can pretty much get clear and constant coverage of stations broadcasting the latest local obituaries. And we have become fans of that genre of radio fare!

But there is always a moment along the way – usually stuck in rush hour traffic coming into Hartford, Connecticut at about the 13-hour mark - when I begin to think there’s got to be a better way. And that’s when I remember how they used to move from one place to another on the old Star Trek television show when Captain Kirk would simply say to Scotty, “Beam me up!” or “Beam me down!” and – whoosh! – he’d be out of Tellico and back in Worcester in the blink of an eye!

Wouldn’t that be quite the way to get from here to there?

I, for one, am fascinated by the fact that a group of researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria have actually found that such a form of travel is, in fact, theoretically possible. Its called Quantum Teleportation. The research team, headed by Anton Zeilinger, was able to demonstrate that it is possible to transfer the properties of one quantum particle (such as a photon) on one side of the galaxy to another quantum particle – on the opposite end of the galaxy.

Now I’m excited about this, and I will be the first to volunteer for the experiment - once they work out the glitches. And there are some glitches. One of the most challenging is the fact that – in the weird world of quantum mechanics – the result of such teleportation is influenced by the receiver’s observation of it. In other words, when you look at Captain Kirk when he shows up on your end, he won’t look like Captain Kirk! So someone has to tell the receiver on the other end what – or who it is - they’re looking at.

That would seem to me to be a little risky, especially if the people sending you from Tennessee to Massachusetts have even the slightest sense of humor!

But wouldn’t it be wonderful – to be able to be transported from one place to another – from one situation to another? If you’re a kid being punished, and your parents send you to your room – whoosh! – off to the movies! If you’re a year away from retiring to Tellico Village and find yourself knee-deep in snow up in Michigan – whoosh! – off to the first tee at the Toqua Golf Course! Oh, the possibilities are endless!

But these researchers tell us that quantum teleportation – even if it moves from theory to actuality – is a long, long, long way down the road.

So it seems like we’re stuck with where we are, what we are, and who we are.

Or are we?

I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but in today’s reading from Colossians 1, St. Paul tells us about a fantastic, almost science-fiction-like thing that has happened in our lives as a result of God’s love poured out for us in Jesus Christ. The New Revised Standard translates verses 13 and 14 of the first chapter like this:

“He (meaning God) has rescued us from the power of darkness, and TRANSFERRED us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

God has TRANSFERRED us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus!

I think St. Paul is trying to say here that you and I – through faith in Christ - have been beamed up! Our lives have been lifted out of the world where the power of darkness has control over us and causes us to live sinfully and destructively, and we have been lifted into a new world where the power of Jesus Christ now is available to set us free to live beautiful, healing, loving, and redemptive lives.

God has TRANSFERRED us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus Christ!

But, as with all forms of quantum teleportation, there are some issues that need to be worked out. The most important is that you and I must reject the old ways of living, and take up some new ways of living. St. Paul puts it this way: “Walk worthy of the Lord.”

And right there is the central tension of the Christian walk. Will we live under the power and influence of darkness, or under the power and influence of Christ? That is the battle we fight every day.

You know, one of the very sad experiences of my ministry occurred years ago when I encountered a family that had done a beautiful thing, and yet despite this beautiful thing they had done, their life was in absolute turmoil. They had adopted a little six or seven year-old child. The child had been abandoned when he was about three by his mother who was a drug addict. He was taken into the custody of Child and Family Services, and then was placed in a foster home. Sadly, it was one of those unfortunate situations that sometimes arise when, despite all the screening, it turns out that the foster family was not a healthy place for this child to be. So he was removed from that family, brought back into state care. Some time after that, the little boy was adopted by this beautiful and loving family.

But for all their love and wonderful effort, this little boy wrecked havoc on his adoptive family. He seemed unable to accept love – did everything he could to return it with destructive behavior – fought constantly against the nurturing efforts of his new family – told them he hated them – said he wished he was dead.

This adoptive family was devastated. They went into counseling to try to understand why the little fellow was acting so destructively. After many sessions with the family and the little boy, the psychologist put it this way: “He’s still living in the world of a mother who abandoned him, and a foster family that mistreated him.”

You see, one of the great difficulties of life is the human propensity to continue living in a world in which we no longer belong. And one of the great challenges we face is learning to live in ways that are appropriate to the new world into which God has transferred us.

My mother, who was frightfully surprised as a child when someone threw a cat into her lap, found that – even as an adult – the presence of a little kitten in the room where she was would send her into a fearful panic. She is living in the old world. A woman I know who went through a very bitter divorce years ago cannot trust herself to a new relationship today. She is living in the old world. A friend whose father never expressed love to him still wrestles with deep feelings of unworthiness, and finds himself unable to express love to his own children. He is living in the old world. And so are we all.

We all live – to one degree or another – according to the standards, values and behaviors of a world in which we no longer belong. And here in the first chapter of Colossians, Paul is trying to help us understand that the old world in which we have been nurtured is a world under the power of darkness. A hurtful world. A destructive world. A world of injustice, and hate, and sin.

But now, in Christ, we have the hope of living in a new world to which we have been “beamed up” – so to speak. A world that’s under different management. It is a world where the horrors of the past can be put away – where forgiveness awaits – where healing can happen – where redemption is an everyday occurrence. Here is a promise that, in Christ, we are somehow spiritually TRANSFERRED out from underneath the evil and destructive powers of this world, and into a new kingdom where we can find power for building a better and more beautiful world than anything we can imagine!

And all we have to do to experience this new power of Christ is to accept the gift, and then trust it by living lives under the influence of Jesus. As Paul says, our role is to learn to “…walk worthy of the Lord.”

I was thinking about this the other day when I was praying about the situation concerning our volunteer firefighters and first responders. These are difficult days in our community. There is a lot of anguish, and injury, and animosity.

Now, all of us have opinions and considered positions on the crisis, and I’m not going to speak to those. But I do want to appeal to you to face this time of challenge as Christian people who have been transferred by the power of God into a new world where our first obligation is to walk worthy of the Lord. This will be difficult to do. If you are at all like me, the most natural thing to do, when I am dismayed by the actions of others, is to lash out in anger at them. To say things that shouldn’t be said. To do things that shouldn’t be done. I’ve done it that way all my life. Its what I’m used to doing when I feel like I’ve been pushed into a corner. My life has been steeped in the idea that the only way to make things right for myself is by emphasizing the other’s wrong. And the only way to bring healing to myself is sometimes by destroying, disrespecting and demeaning others.

This is what St. Paul means about being under the power and influence of darkness. Darkness is a destructive force.

But now –through our faith in Jesus - God has TRANSFERRED us from the power of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And now, under the power and influence of Jesus, there is a BETTER way to handle the difficulties and challenges and controversies of life. There is a BETTER way to resolve our present local crisis.

And it begins when people of faith – like you and me – commit ourselves to walk through this difficult time by walking worthy of the Lord.

By seeking to be agents of healing, and not dividing. By learning to listen – before speaking. And when we do open our mouths, by speaking the truth – in love. By framing disagreement – with respect. By loving our enemy and praying for those who hate us. By practicing forgiveness, and offering encouragement, and spreading grace around. By appealing to the good in people, and not to the bad.

What do you think would happen if all of us went out this week among our friends and neighbors - as peacemakers, and reconcilers, and bridge builders, and healers? What would happen if we took this little passage – walk worthy of the Lord – and actually applied it to the real life crisis right here in Tellico Village?

Some, I know, are skeptics. They may feel that the Christian faith is naïve in its belief that the way of Jesus – the way of love – is able to resolve real problems. And they may well point to the fact that the world hasn’t changed all that much despite two thousand years of Christian faith.

But I like the words of Malcolm Muggeridge who once said, “It’s not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, but rather that it has been found difficult and not tried.”

Friends, will you go into the Village this week and try it? I believe that you can help the healing begin.

Some years ago, I heard a story about a farmer who, out working in the field one day, found an egg. He had no idea what kind of egg it was, or where it came from. But it was about the same size and shape as the eggs recently laid by the goose in the barnyard. So the farmer picked up the egg, and thought he’d give it a chance by tucking it into the nest with all the others.

Several weeks went by, and then the goose eggs started hatching. Out popped all these fluffy little goslings. But the one egg did not hatch along with all the others. They were several days old before that egg hatched. And when it did, there was shock in the barnyard.

The littlest goose was badly malformed. Instead of a nice rounded bill, his was crooked and sharp. Instead of beautifully webbed feet that would be fine for swimming, his were twisted and not buoyant at all. Every time the little one tried to join his brothers and sisters swimming in the farmer’s pond, he would sink right to the bottom. So he quickly learned to just run along the shore, and meet the rest of his family when they came out on the other side.

The farmer and his family watched this with a great deal of sadness. Everyone felt so badly for the little, malformed goose.

But then one day all the animals were out in the barnyard when a fearful shadow swept across the ground. Everyone looked up, scared to death. It was an eagle, turning circles in the thermals, looking for prey. And when the eagle let forth with it’s mighty screeching voice, all the animals below scurried way and hid.

All except for this littlest goose.

There was something about the sight that stirred something within. There was something about the sound that called out to him. Suddenly, he found himself running across the barnyard on his little twisted feet, flapping his little twisted wings, making screeching sounds with his little twisted beak…until…all of a sudden, he was FLYING! Up…up…up…he soared! Up…to join his mother circling in the sky.

You see, he’d been born to be an eagle. But he’d been living like a goose!

What have you been born to be?

As you leave the sanctuary this morning, would you whisper a little prayer as you go through the doors and out into our community?

“ Jesus…beam me UP – and help me walk worthy of your love!”