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Vicar Trevor Sutton
September 26, 2010
Last week, I came back from a very long day at the church. I was exhausted...mentally and physically. So I commenced to doing the only thing that makes me feel better on days like that—I planted myself on the couch and became a couch potato. I turned the TV on and had every intention of sitting on that couch long enough to grow sprouts. Now, the remote control was on the coffee table...about 15 feet away. The thought of getting up...walking over to the remote...coming back...compressing the little buttons...holding the clicker up long enough to actually change the channels ALL sounded exhausting. I decided that the only path forward was to leave the remote on the coffee table and watch whatever was on. So that is what I did...I took my chances and watched whatever was currently on TV.
What happened next was horrible. I shudder just to talk about—for every one minute of programming, there were 20 minutes of gubernatorial election commercials. Virg Bernero commercials followed by Rick Snyder commercials; Rick Snyder commercials followed by Virg Bernero commercials. ONE AFTER ANOTHER. It was horrible. I looked at the remote again, knowing that I did not have the strength or willpower to get up and get it. I focused all of my energy on the remote...trying telepathically to change the channel...but it was no use.
Now, we all pretty much know how political commercials go. They begin with sort of happy music and a clip of the candidate walking in a factory giving workers bonuses while cutting taxes....maybe there is a clip of the candidate waving at his adoring fans in a campaign parade. Then the commercial shifts to the opponent. The music gets dark and you see a black and white picture of the opponent. Maybe he is giving workers pink slips...Maybe he has red horns sticking out his hard helmet. Then the commercial cuts back to a color clip of the candidate again waving at his adoring constituents in a parade.
Now, there is a lot of mudslinging that goes on during political elections. We have heard it all. HOWEVER, there is one line that you will never hear a politician say about an opponent. You will never hear any of them say, 'Don't vote for my opponent because in 50 years, he is going to be dead.' The closest we have ever gotten to that was the whole 'John McCain is too old to be president' criticism last election. The reason that you do not hear the 'in 50 years he is going to be dead' argument is because the logical retort would be... 'Umm...yea, but so are you!'
Death is the problem. If you think about it, all of our politicians run on the platform of trying to ward off death. Health care reform is a feeble attempt to keep us out of the grave for as long as possible—remember the scandal of potential 'death panels' in the health care system? And the 'Putting America Back to Work' initiative should really be called the 'Let's keep American's from Starving to Death' initiative. Keeping peace in the Middle East means that war will not bring about death before old age does. Though they will not say it, the goal of every politician is to ward off death for as many people for as long as possible. Keeping food on the table through a stable economy, keeping adequate health care and a strong police force are all an attempt to keep death at an arm's length. Through all of the political rhetoric, Rick Snyder and Virg Bernero are simply trying to say, "I will keep you from death longer than my opponent."
Still despite all of these politicians with their well-paid handlers and their three-piece suits...death is still a problem. Of the two inevitabilities of life—death and taxes—our politicians talk about both but cannot seem to get rid of either one. Death and decay are all around us...I am only 24 years old, but I cannot play soccer like I did back in college...my body is getting older...closer to death. I can only imagine how much I will complain about my physical limitations when I am 50! We see death and decay in our food too...We go to the Farmer's Market down the street and get bright, green, produce fresh off the farm...still living produce. Then we put it in our refrigerator for a few days and it turns into this green blob of slimy spinach paste that smells more like road kill than spinach.
Now we would never say to a politician, "I don't feel like I did when I was 18...I feel bloated...Can you please stop my waist inflation?' OR "my spinach keeps on going bad. I would like you to reform vegetable decay now!" We do not ask these things of our politicians because we know that they cannot do it. We are dying...all living things are marching towards death...and our governors can only sit on the sideline and watch this macabre funeral procession go by.
Piercing through this mess, we hear Psalm 146 speaking to us. It oddly begins with the word: 'Hallelujah!' Though we are familiar with the Hebrew word hallelujah, we are not very familiar with what it means. It is made up of two Hebrew words—Hillul which means praise and Yah' which is a shortened form of God's personal name YHWH. So, Hallelujah simply means 'praise YHWH.' This Psalm begins and ends telling us to 'Praise YHWH'.
And this Psalm predicts our next question: why should we praise the Lord? It tells us, 'put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.' To paraphrase, this text is saying: "don't put your trust in someone who is going to die. Princes die. Governors die. Presidents die. God does not die. With God, death is overcome!"
God doesn't just give you subsidized health care...God doesn't just put you back to work so you can keep your house...God gives you life eternal! God puts a grinding halt to the macabre funeral procession. God puts a stop to the funeral procession that our princes can only sit and watch go by. God saw the problem of death...he loved his creation so much...he loved you so much...that he entered into time and space through Christ and put a stop to our death march. Christ's empty tomb was the end of the line for death. Christ has turned our funeral procession into a parade! A parade of eternal life!
With one line, this Psalm turns our funeral procession into a parade: 'Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God!' If your trust...your help...your hope is in the Lord, then you have life eternal. God does not die...Christ does not die...the empty tomb is proof of that!
Better than some politician working on a 'new deal' to peel back the hand of death, you can actually do something about death. Telling others...spreading the Good News of Christ's death and resurrection can stop the death march for others...Bringing others to put their help and hope in the LORD tears them out of their own personal funeral procession and places them in Christ's parade of life!
Recently, I made a friend at a funeral. We randomly began talking while waiting for the luncheon to begin—an hour later, we were good friends. He told me that he was a recovering alcoholic, one year sober. Along with his one year of sobriety, he is one year into being a Christian. His addiction was causing him to not only march to the grave...but to run to it. His body was shutting down...he was losing friends daily...One night, about a year ago, God broke my friend down...he asked God for forgiveness, he grabbed the first Bible he could find. God brought him from death to life. God pulled this man out of his death march and placed him in Christ's parade of life. Now my friend is in California, at his brother's bedside. See, his brother is near death from a nasty staph infection. His brother is not a believer; he is not in Christ's parade of life. My friend is right now at his brother's bedside pleading with him not to put his trust in princes, governors, or the health care system...but rather to put his trust in God...the one who can actually give him life.
With Christ, you have conquered death...this is something princes cannot give you...something that governors cannot give you. With Christ, your place in the funeral procession of life is empty. With Christ, you now have a place in the parade of life!
© St. Paul Lutheran Church 2010