GOD HAS PUT SOMETHING VERY RIGHT!

A meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

April 20, 2003

Text: “He is not here.” (Mark 16:6)

First Reading: Acts 10:34-43

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

When Warren Via went in for his open-heart surgery this past week, both of his children, Sonny and Barbara were with him along with his wife Weetzie. That evening Weetzie took the kids down to the basement where Warren has his workshop. Now you may not know it but Warren is a skilled woodworker. He loves to use exotic and hard woods and has made the box that holds our organ dedication book in the narthex. He’s also made the box on which the cross sits here in the chancel. He’s made cabinets for people and helped to remake our closet at home when the builder’s racks fell off the wall, leaving all of our clothes in a heap on the floor.

At any rate, Weetzie took the kids down the basement and began telling them what they had to get rid of. After all, with Warren’s surgery he wouldn’t be able to do any of the woodworking he’d done in the past. So, they were going to get rid of his saws, his plainer, his sander and all the tools that would require his lifting of any kind.

The next morning, with Warren in cardiac recovery, all the family was present when the surgeon came in. During the course of the conversation, while the doctor was explaining how well the surgery had gone and how strong Warren had been throughout the procedure, Sonny told him of the prior evening’s decision in the basement. The doctor looked at the family and said, “You’ll do nothing of the kind. Your father is going to be stronger than he was before the surgery. Working with wood is his therapy and you’ll not take that away from him.” And that was that.

This past week, thinking about the service this morning, I came across the perfect theme for this meditation. It’s taken from a sermon Joanna Adams preached in Chicago; She made the comment that, “In a world where everything seems to be going wrong, God has put something very right.” That’s what the doctor was telling Warren’s family, God has put something very right. In his case it was his heart that will now be stronger than it’s been for some time. That’s what the young man in the white robe told the women who’d gone to anoint Jesus. In a world where everything seems to be going wrong, God has put something very right. “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here…But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

In a world where things seem to be going terribly we’re praying daily that God will put something right in Iraq and, indeed, in the whole middle East. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, as Thomas Friedman has written, that somehow out of this war Iraq would become a beacon of hope for the Arab world and that Syria, Lebanon and Palestine could come together in a Union of Arab states founded on democratic principles and free elections.

These past three weeks we have lain to rest too many people. Each death that’s occurred has been a release for Luther Immler, Bill Bennoit, Cleo Eberlein, Betty Litz, and Margaret Bosworth. While they lay in hospital all the family could think about was that things had gone terribly wrong. Yet, at the services time and again, because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we could affirm that God had put something terribly right. Sure, the families still suffer their loss; we all do. Yet, they and we can rest in the assurance that: “Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever. Because I live you will live also. (Rev. 1:17-18; John 14:19) For none of us lives to themselves, and none of us dies to themselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8). Or, again listen to Paul in his letter to the Romans: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, no life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 35-39)

In Open Secrets John Lischer asks a very intriguing question, “What is more important, the political power that openly rules the world, or the kingdom of God that secretly consecrates it?” That’s what we celebrate this morning in Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the kingdom of God that secretly consecrates all that we do. Regardless of what may seemingly be wrong with the world, God, in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead God put something very right. God did it with Warren Via’s recovery from open-heart surgery. God did it with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome. God did it with Luther Immler, Bill Bennoit, Cleo Eberlein, Betty Litz, and Margaret Bosworth. And God will do it with all of you. Just when you think things are going terribly wrong, God has already secretly consecrated your life.

God came to earth in Jesus Christ and got caught up in all the mess, the grime, the heartaches, the suffering, the tediousness, the frustration, the fears and even death itself and said, “I’m going to make it mine.” In so doing, God made the point that never again would God allow anything to separate God from that which God so lovingly created. In so doing, God assured you and me from this time forth and forevermore that “whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s.” In so doing, God secretly consecrates all that we do to God’s glory and honor. Have a Blessed Easter!

Thanks be to God,

Amen