00:00:11.040 - 00:00:36.140

it's been a troubling night and there are troubling days ahead. I know that many of you are saddened , many of you were outraged by, okay. Mhm. What has happened and is happening in Ferguson

00:00:36.150 - 00:01:03.170

Missouri. Mhm. And I want to acknowledge that I do not believe that yeah, the worship of the living god should be an exercise in denial. And so last night when I Finished this sermon at

00:01:03.170 - 00:01:22.130

about 2:30 AM. Mhm. It's part of the life. Yeah, yeah. I wondered if I should scrap this and start over and I decided I would not do that Partly because I did not think

00:01:22.130 - 00:01:46.090

that I would achieve coherence until about 1059 today and partly because I do not know that I would say anything different than what I am about to say thanks , we are not in Ferguson Missouri, we are

00:01:46.090 - 00:02:00.680

here and there is much to do here. Yeah . And in order to get some specificity about that , I would urge you if you have not already done so to read through the current issue of insights

00:02:00.680 - 00:02:29.140

and especially the article by santa Todd. The leading article that documents conditions of injustice in texas. But secondly the only thing that justifies what you are against is what you are for and it's important to keep

00:02:29.150 - 00:02:53.440

tight hold of what we are for Yeah, what we witness to times like this, it's easy to become fixated on that which troubles us and to overlook all that encourages and inspires, it's easy to do

00:02:53.440 - 00:03:12.960

that. It's understandable to do that. It is wrong to do that Bill coffin and Chaplin where I went to college often said the other reason to hate evil is because you love the good otherwise all you

00:03:12.960 - 00:03:39.300

have done is add to the hate in the world and so with that in mind and remembering that this worship service follows from christ the king sunday. I want to consider biblical heroes. Mhm Biblical heroes are

00:03:39.310 - 00:04:02.830

different. Okay, In June 1938 Action Comics# one launched Superman into the world and heroes changed. Superman wasn't human, He was more than human. He could do things, no human could do.

00:04:02.830 - 00:04:20.550

He was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound as the television intro that was burned into our brains. Put it, Superman changed heroism

00:04:21.940 - 00:04:43.790

. Heroes had to be super that to fly or run very, very fast or breathe underwater or fly in individual airplanes or at least dress weird. They'll add capes, that secret identities. They all had

00:04:43.800 - 00:05:00.780

a vulnerability, vulnerability one and only one. They often died, but they always came back to life in the next issue and just in case you couldn't figure out who they were, they had big,

00:05:00.780 - 00:05:18.520

brazen logos or symbols on their costumes. Mhm. And they were forever beyond you, no matter how much you fantasized or harmed the theme song. And there are now dozens of such heroes, each one

00:05:18.520 - 00:05:34.460

a slight variation on the original there, in the comic books, there, on the comic pages, there on television shows, there are in movie after movie after movie, but biblical heroes are different.

00:05:39.440 - 00:06:01.870

The only biblical hero I can think of who is remotely like superman is Sampson. And Sampson was extraordinarily strong, perhaps super humanly strong and to use this strength rather randomly. Sometimes we're good, but he

00:06:01.870 - 00:06:21.750

was human and his vulnerability was not for a glowing green rock. Mhm. But due to the very human trait that his lust was stronger than his mind . And the story of Samson finally is not a

00:06:21.750 - 00:06:40.680

hero story. It's a warning, it's a warning that we are not to take that road no matter how strong we might be. And most of the paradigms of might in the bible, Saul and David

00:06:40.680 - 00:07:00.810

come to mind carry the same message. Strength might save you from an enemy, but it won't save you from yourself. True heroes of the bible are often unnamed. In fact bible is full of anonymous

00:07:00.810 - 00:07:19.080

heroes as eric our back in the book, Ma Missus noted half a century ago. The heroes in the bible are very different from the heroes of classical mythology. Their contemporaries, the heroes of the bible

00:07:19.080 - 00:07:35.480

do not occupy a well lit stage. They come out of the darkness, they act in obscurity. They're not the offspring of the gods and mostly they are neither mighty nor all that brave. And even

00:07:35.480 - 00:08:01.590

those whose stories are extended and convoluted share these characteristics . So consider Elijah Elijah, who in some ways we know well appears in the bible out of nowhere . Suddenly he just there yeah, he courageously faces

00:08:01.590 - 00:08:24.650

down the profits of bail but in the face of jezebel stretch on his life he runs like a rabbit whining all the way that he is the only one left. But the word comes there are 7000 all

00:08:24.650 - 00:08:50.640

one named yeah who have not bowed to bail. 7000 whose heroism lay not in what they had done but in what they refused to do. Mhm. Or consider the father the father who brought his child

00:08:50.650 - 00:09:13.050

to jesus, seeking healing. Now the side of that father coupled with the failure of the disciples who had attempted to heal the child in jesus absence provoked one of jesus more obscure moments of irritation. It's

00:09:13.050 - 00:09:31.960

not even clear who was talking to perverse generation probably included all of them in some way or another, but it was this one this unnamed father who in the gospel, according to Mark voiced the thought that

00:09:31.960 - 00:09:52.670

every believer has had at one time or another I believe help my unbelief, not folks as a human hero, that one that father trying to hold on to faith and hope in the face of failure and

00:09:52.670 - 00:10:16.560

frustration and helplessness that father speaks for all of us , he brings nothing to jesus, nothing except the son that he loves and his honesty and his need and that's enough to make him a hero. How

00:10:16.560 - 00:10:46.440

long will jesus put up with that? Yeah, quite a long time apparently because we feel that way and we fail like the disciples failed and yet such heroes are all around us and sometimes within us now

00:10:46.440 - 00:11:05.530

there are two types of people, there are people who think there are two types of people and people who think that simplistic, but given that there are preachers who avoid preaching on revelation at all costs and

00:11:05.530 - 00:11:28.550

there are preachers who never preach on anything else. Now I tried to avoid such extremes on principle and so I hold myself to preaching on revelation about every 10 years. The last time I did so was

00:11:28.550 - 00:11:46.710

in this chapel in 2007, so I'm probably pushing things a bit, but every once in a while one has to take risks in the pulpit. So consider those in revelation who have the mark of God

00:11:46.710 - 00:12:11.450

on their foreheads. They are not named, but they are numbered at least initially 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, 144,000 in all, they are numbered, but then the numbering fails.

00:12:15.040 - 00:12:31.790

After this, I looked and there was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb robed in white with palm

00:12:31.790 - 00:12:50.060

branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice saying Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the lamb. Call them heroes call them saints. Mhm They are not

00:12:50.060 - 00:13:09.990

named but they are known known to God If no one else and they are beyond counting. Their deeds are not recounted. Their histories are hidden but they are there and they are dressed in white and they

00:13:09.990 - 00:13:28.260

are standing before the lamb and they are joining together in praise of God Superman and all his clones, Batman and Flash and Aquaman and Wonder Woman and green lantern and the hulk and the Fantastic four and the

00:13:28.260 - 00:13:46.590

silver surfer and Captain America and all the rest have warped us. They have made us forget what heroes really are. They have moved heroes to the realm of fantasy. They are have taken our real heroism

00:13:46.600 - 00:14:05.320

away from us. No one is faster than a speeding bullet, at least no one in this room and we are not anywhere close to the power of a locomotive. And these days, whenever I encounter

00:14:05.320 - 00:14:20.420

a tall curb, I stop and think for a while. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I can withstand kryptonite at least in small doses . Now, if we look to the bible,

00:14:20.420 - 00:14:37.100

if we recall the heroes who are unnamed but not unknown, we do not see all of that superhuman stuff. We see people who are weak. We see people who fail. We see people who need

00:14:37.110 - 00:15:00.210

healing. We see qualities that are human rather than superhuman. The willingness to endure. The willingness to start over, the willingness to learn from failure, the willingness to ask and to extend forgiveness. We

00:15:00.210 - 00:15:18.240

see the refusal to do harm. We see the refusal to exploit those who are vulnerable. We see the refusal to bow to that which is no God . We see those who act justly even though their

00:15:18.240 - 00:15:39.090

actions cost them. We see those who love mercy and extend mercy at whatever cost, we see humility , the humility of those who are willing to be honest with themselves about themselves. We see heroes who

00:15:39.090 - 00:16:00.100

do not think of themselves as heroes who would be quite surprised to hear themselves called heroes. But heroes , they are pastors spent a good bit of time in cemeteries. I lost track of how many funerals

00:16:00.100 - 00:16:15.970

I conducted in my time as a parish pastor. I do remember stretches where it seemed like I was doing a funeral every week and during one rather grim stretch. I did four weddings and three funerals in

00:16:15.970 - 00:16:34.820

a seven week stretch. Which required a certain emotional elasticity. But sometimes I would drive into a cemetery when I didn't have to conduct a funeral. Cemeteries offer a kind of sanctuary. They are quiet,

00:16:34.830 - 00:16:52.690

they are peaceful, they are something like great big gardens and I would drive around the little road and look at the names and the dates on the headstones and some of the people I knew, some have

00:16:52.690 - 00:17:11.770

been friends. Some had been members of congregations I served but most of them however were only names and dates on a stone and sometimes less than that the names and dates had worn away. And I would

00:17:11.770 - 00:17:37.170

remember the words of God in the Book of Revelation to those who were, Yeah, crying out how long a Lord? The words of God that said rest a little longer. I worry about our societies

00:17:37.740 - 00:17:56.170

propensity for fantasy heroes. I worry about our tendency to look for the superhero and our reluctance to find the heroic in the ordinary. I have come to prefer the heroics of peter, the fisherman and Elijah

00:17:56.180 - 00:18:19.180

the fish by over clark Kent and the mildly neurotic peter parker. Over and over again I have seen that anonymous hero of a father with his suffering child standing at a hospital bedside. Mhm pushing a wheelchair

00:18:19.180 - 00:18:47.930

down the street posting bail for a kid in trouble and morning and a grave. And I know their feelings of frustration and impotence as they face that which is stronger than they are and our heroes um consists

00:18:47.930 - 00:19:12.430

in continuing to face it and do what can be done. Mhm. And I know one more thing . Yeah. Yeah. There is one who is stronger yet stronger than all that is stronger than we

00:19:12.430 - 00:19:33.040

are and that one has promised as I am with you always. Okay. Okay, mm. Yeah