Taking A Risk
Luke 20: 9-19
March 20, 1993
By now, almost everybody has seen or heard of the movie “E, T. ” The film captured the imagination of the world and may win the Academy Award as “best picture”,
Recently, a study was published on the power that this film had over children, The psychologists who wrote the report said that the principal issuer and the reason behind the movies popularity, was the conflict: between growing up and remaining childlike, This, the report said, was symbolized by the scene in which Elliott, the 10 year old boy, struggled with the choice of going back in the space ship with E, T, or remaining here on earth.
I was amazed at the sophistication of the children’s responses to the interviewers. When asked about that scene, the youngsters said, for instance: “You can 1 t grow up on Jupiter, you stay a kid like E, T, ” And “Elliott’s not going back on the space ship meant that he wanted to become a big person, but it was a hard choice because the adults were so mixed up”
That theme touches something deep within me, If you, want many times to stay a child, particularly when maturity means an aching heart and the possibility of suffering, surely all of us have known moments when we wanted to avoid at all costs the tragic, the risky, the pain of life. Many of us would echo Edmund’s Words in “Long Day’s Journey into Night:
“Who wants to see life as it is if they can help it? I want to be in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself. Who wants to risk reality? ”
There is a reason for this: For most of us, life is pretty difficult. We are no strangers to pain, yet consciously or unconsciously, we spend a great deal of time and energy trying to sidestep suffering,
I am reminded of the story of the woman and her husband who interrupted their vacation to go to the dentist, I want a tooth pulled, she said, and I don’t want any gas because I’m in a big hurry. Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible.
The dentist was quite impressed and said, “You certainly are a courageous woman. Which tooth is it?” The woman turned to her husband and said, “Show him your tooth, dear.”
Oh, how we would like to avoid, to sidestep suffering even if it means allowing others to face it — even if it means staying childish trying to order our world so that our principal concern is to minimize the risk of suffering and pursue at all costs the good, the successful, the painfree life.
I suppose this is why religion is based on success rather than suffering, is flourishing all over the country. The apostles of the aspirin age present a childlike gospel, in which faithfulness is measured by increased production rather than suffering love, and they attract millions. Many years ago, Edwin Arlington Robinson said:
“The world is becoming a spiritual kindergarten, where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks”
This is why the parable we read this morning is difficult to understand. In a world that hides from pain, avoids suffering, and never risks tragedy the parable seems out of place. To the Pharisees of Jesus’ day it was an affront; to us some times these words seem incomprehensible,
A man Jesus tells Us planted a vineyard and then he let his tenants live there and enjoy the good life , So far so good? We can identify with that picture. But then he sends his servant his workers , his representatives and they are rejected, beaten, thrown out. Finally, his son is taken and killed, it isn’t t a very subtle parable is it?
The Pharisees picked it up very quickly. As soon as they heard it they said, “Certainly not — no way. ” They flat-out rejected the prediction that God’s representatives, God’s workers, I would suffer or be wounded, and even die,
What a discordant note to those who would be God’s servants! What a jumble this makes to those whose religion is characterized by winning and not losing! When confronted with this parable a lot of us would rather stay childlike and go to Jupiter with E, T, than pursue suffering love and go to Golgotha with J,C,!
In this period of Lent, we are invited to walk the way of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa- not just to view it as something that happened to a good man two thousand years ago. We are invited to move out and take the risk of suffering ourselves. How foreign that is for well-fed Americans r whose principal thrust is to minimize risk and maximize security! But Christ will have died in vain if his Crucifixion does not bring home to each of us the message that love must risk suffering, and maturity means an aching heart.
More and more, I am convinced that the essential problem of the Church at this season is not to convict people for their sin — it is to convince people that their suffering is the way to God,
Sometimes the words from popular music are the closest we can come to the Gospel message, Janice Joplin wrote a song, later made into a movie of her life, that says it all for me —- particularly at times like this when I want to stay childlike instead of entering into a more mature Christianity, Here then are some of the words from “The Rose” :
It’s the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance,
It’s the dream afraid of waking
That never takes a chance,
It’s the one who won’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live,
During the next two weeks as we walk together toward the Cross and the empty tomb may we learn to dance together -the dance of death as well as the dance of life, May we learn that only where there are graves are there resurrections, And only when we risk a broken heart can we find the love of God.
Amen