SPECIAL DAYS: Memorial Sunday, Pentecost Sunday

May 30, Lesson: John 14.25-31

Sermon Title: Living with Angst

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INTRODUCTION: In the Dark (1)

Think of a number.
Multiply it by 3.
Now add 5.
Take away the number you first thought of.
Now add 7.
Subtract 2.
Add back the number you first thought of.
Now, close your eyes.

Dark, isn't it?

  1. The dark is adversity

    1. The dark is apprehension.

    2. The dark is anxiety.

    3. The dark is absence of light, or at least more dark than light.

      1. We, in this life cannot escape the darkness.

      2. The darkness is part of each of us.

  2. This is the meaning of Angst?

    1. It is a feeling of unease.

    2. It is a set of mind that develops when we hear of the increased threat of a terrorist attack.

    3. It is the concern that is generated when we hear about the dangers in Iraq.

    4. It is the distress that is created when we hear that "the world is going to hell in a hand-basket.

    5. It is the remorse and sense of loss that underlies a Memorial Day.

      1. There is a sense of satisfaction in courageous sacrifice and fulfillment of duty for country.

      2. There are also tears of remembrance at the loss of those who are loved.

  3. We cannot get rid of angst.

    1. What we can do is learn to live with it.

    2. What we can learn to do is to transcend it.

      1. One meaning of transcend is: "To be greater than, as in intensity or power."

      2. A second meaning is: "To go beyond the limits of."

    3. If we do not learn to transcend we may find that life is blocked at a wall of our own devising which may not be conquered.

Viktor Frankl has written that peace means freedom in the face of three things: our instincts or lower nature, our inherited traits or disposition and our surroundings

Few of us, Frankl goes on, make important life choices with any degree of decisiveness. Backtracking here and compromising there, we often lack the backbone to stand by our own decisions. Because of this, we remain in a continual state of angst. At times we hold a planless, day-to-day attitude toward whatever comes our way. At others we are fatalistic, defeatist. One day we exhibit spinelessness and have no clearly defined opinion at all; the next we cling so strongly and stubbornly to an idea we become fanatical. Ultimately, Frankl says, all these symptoms can be traced back to our fear of responsibility, and the indecision which is its fruit.

--Johann Arnold, Seeking Peace (Pennsylvania: The Plough Publishing House, 1998), 140.

    1. How can we learn to transcend and achieve the peace of which Jesus is speaking and teaching?

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MAIN BODY:

  1. First of all we recognize that we live in a world that is loaded with toil and trouble.

    1. Psalmist describes life.

      1. "The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away," (Psalm 90:10, NRSVA)

      2. We might wish it was not this way, but it is.

    2. Jesus describes the disciples future and also ours.

      1. "The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" (John 16:32-33, NRSVA).

      2. In the world you face persecution.

        1. In the world you face, pressure (literally or figuratively):--afflicted, (-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble.

        2. from Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:

    3. Paul writes that we can experience much trouble in life.

      1. "No testing (adversity) has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it," (1 Corinthians 10:13, NRSVA).

      2. Whatever may happen to humanity, may happen to us.

    4. M. Scott Peck, used before, but worth repeating.

      1. M. Scott Peck opens the first chapter of his book, "the Road Less Traveled," with these words:

"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

      1. We are vulnerable and cannot escape.

Misunderstanding (2)

During an impassioned sermon on death and facing judgment, the pastor said forcefully, "every member of this church is going to die and face judgment." Early on in the sermon he noticed a gentleman smiling on the front row.

The minister kept pushing his theme, "Every member of this church is going to die." The guy smiled even more while everyone else in the congregation had a very somber look.

In an effort to get through to the guy, the preacher repeated it several more times forcefully, "EACH MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO DIE."

Each time the phrase was repeated, the man smiled more. This really got the preacher wound up and he preached even harder. The man still smiled.

The preacher finally walked down off the platform to stand just in front of the smiling man and shouted, "I SAID EACH MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO DIE."

At the end of the service the man was smiling from ear to ear. While everyone else was looking pretty grim from the prospects, the man was now almost laughing out loud.

After the service the preacher jumped down off the platform and worked through the crowd to find the man.

Pulling him aside, the preacher said, "I don't get it. Every time I said, 'Every member of this church is going to die,' you were laughing. I want to know why you did that?"

The man looked the preacher square in the eye and said confidently, "I'm not a member of this church."

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  1. Secondly, there are only a few ways to cope or to live with the conditions of our world.

    1. We can hide.

      1. Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed. --Michael Pritchard

    2. We can run away

      1. We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow. --Fulton Oursler

      2. In the booklet that I wrote to share scriptures, thoughts and prayers with those who are ill or discouraged I included a poem attributed to Annie Johnson Flint: What Has God Promised (3)

God has not promised skies always blue,
 Flower strewn pathways, all our lives through.
 God has not promised sun without rain,
 Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

    1. We can embrace

      1. Embrace means to accept as part of our lives and experience.

        1. There is no blame game.

        2. There are no reservations left.

        3. This is mine and I will accept it.

      2. If we embrace, we can learn to transcend:

        1. (To be greater or better than) or

        2. (To exist above and independent of.)

  1. Jesus provides the understanding, the means, and the power to achieve transcendence.

    1. We need the rest of Annie Johnson Flint's poem:

What Has God Promised (4)
 God has not promised skies always blue,
 Flower strewn pathways, all our lives through.
 God has not promised sun without rain,
 Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God has promised strength for the day,
 Rest for the laborer, light on the way;
 Grace for the trials, help from above,
 Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

    1. Jesus has promised understanding

Fear distorts truth, not by exaggerating the ills of the world . . . but by underestimating our ability to deal with them . . . while love seeks truth, fear seeks safety.

--William Sloane Coffin, The Courage to Love (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 60.

    1. Jesus has promised means

"If we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have no reason to fear that truth from any source will undercut our faith. Indeed, we have every reason to believe that all truth, wisdom and reality cohere in him."

--John Cobb, Being a Transformationist in a Pluralist World, Christian Century, 10-17 August 1994, 749.

      1. This is the inherit promise in John 14:23-27, (NRSVA)

23Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

      1. John MacArthur tells this story of British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

One evening Spurgeon was riding home after a backbreaking day at the church, feeling weary in well doing and depressed. Suddenly a verse came to mind:

My grace is sufficient for you.

Spurgeon began imagining he was a little fish in the Thames River, apprehensive lest by drinking so many pints of water each day he might drink the Thames dry.

The Thames said to him, Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for you.

Spurgeon's mind then took him to the granaries of ancient Egypt, where he was a little mouse, afraid lest his daily nibbles would exhaust the supplies of the pharaoh and cause him to starve to death.

Then Joseph came along and said, Cheer up, little mouse. My granaries are sufficient for you.

Finally Spurgeon imagined himself a mountain climber, ascending to some high and lofty summit. Once there, he feared his breathing might exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

The Creator then boomed from the heavens and said, Breathe away, oh human, and fill your lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for you.

--Our Sufficiency in Christ (Dallas: Word Pub., 1991), 256-57.

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    1. Jesus has promises power

"An illustration that has stood the test of time is Roy L. Smith's story of his fear of the dark when he was a boy.

Late one evening, his father asked him to go to the barn for some tools.

Roy begged his father not to send him, admitting he was deathly afraid of the dark.

His father put a lantern into his hand. How far can you see, son? As far as the mulberry tree, he replied. Then go to the mulberry tree.

When the boy arrived there, his father asked, Now, how far can you see? I can see to the currant bush, said the boy.

When the boy arrived at the currant bush, his father asked again: How far can you see from there? This time it was the henhouse.

Next it was the hayloft, and finally the barn.

And so the boy, step by step, made it to the barn.

    1. We do not go alone.

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CONCLUSION

  1. Margaret Fishback, though young, had suffered through her share of heartbreaking times.

The man she dearly loved had left her.

She had fallen ill with a serious case of meningitis that kept her bed-ridden for months.

Margaret felt that she had reached one of the lowest points of her life.

Then Margaret's brother introduced her to a charming young man named Paul Powers.

Paul treated Margaret with such kindness that she almost forgot the hurt she had been carrying around for so long.

Eventually, Paul asked Margaret to marry him.

Though she loved him deeply, Margaret refused.

She was not ready to trust anyone yet.

She was still filled with pain that just wouldn't go away.

That night, Margaret prayed to God to clear away her pain and confusion.

She sat down to write in her diary, and the words just seemed to flow from her heart.

All the confusion and the hurt spilled out in a poem to God.

But God touched her heart while she wrote, and the poem ended with the assurance that God was always with her.

Margaret Fishback accepted Paul's proposal and became his wife.

And Margaret's desperate diary entry from that night of despair is now known the world over as the poem "Footprints".

-- "A Love Story," Margaret Rose Powers GUIDEPOSTS, Jul. 1992 P. 34-38.

  1. Has this helped you to learn to live with angst?

    1. If not then you can help me to understand what is missing.

    2. If so then the purpose of this sermon has been accomplished.

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. Received from Andychaps "The Funnies." Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

3. 1Attributed to Annie Johnson Flint

4. Ibid

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