“A Grace
Disguised”
1 Corinthians 15: 50-56
John 20:19-29
NOTE: This messa=
ge is
my interpretation of Gerald Sittser’s work in the book, A Grace Disguised. He is our teacher this morning=
and
if you would like to go deeper I believe his book is the best thing written=
on
suffering and a Christian response.
POWERPOINT ONE: “You know as well as I
there’s more…
=
&nb=
sp; =
There’s always one more scene no matter.”
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; Archibald McLeish
In
the fall of 1991 Gerald Sittser, a professor of religion at Whitworth colle=
ge
and his wife, Lydia, his mother –in-law and their four children were
returning from a local Native American Indian reservation after of day of
exploration about Native American culture when a drunk driver plowed into t=
hem
head on killing his wife, mother-in-law and his youngest daughter, four year
old Diane Jane.
POWERPOINT TWO:
Picture of Gerald Sittser
He
is our guide this morning because he didn’t just survive this
catastrophic loss, but learned to let sorrow increase his capacity to live
well, to love life, and to experience joy, not after the darkness but even =
in
the midst of it.
The
lessons he learned are so important to all of us because while the details =
of
our losses differ, “sooner or later all of us will experience loss, in
little doses or big ones, suddenly or over time, privately or in public
settings. Loss is as much a p=
art of
life as birth, for as surely as we are born into the world we suffer loss
before we leave it.” Pg. 9
A Grace Disguised
ADD TO TWO: GUIDING PRICIPLE:
The defining moment of our lives~ i=
s not
loss, but rather our response to loss.
To be enlarged by loss is graces way—not to “get over
it.”
It
is not the experience of loss that becomes the defining moment of our lives=
—loss
inevitable—it is how we respond that matters. “This response will largely
determine the quality, direction, and the impact of our lives.” Sittser
After
this terrible accident so many people kept asking the same question:
POWERPOINT THREE=
: Why you?
This
tragedy was a terrible injustice—such a great family—why if it
happened to you it could happen to any of us! And of course this is true. It is not a safe world.
For
many months Gerald Sittser was stuck on just this question: Why me?” Until he finally heard someone ask=
the
opposite question: “Why=
not
me?” It was asked by a =
man
who had lost his dear wife of 30 years to cancer. He was not a fatalistic person.
He
could no more explain why his life had turned bad than he could explain why=
his
life had been so good up to that point.&nb=
sp;
He had little control over so much~ born to a stable middle class
family, rather than a beggar on the streets of
POWERPOINT FOUR:=
Why not me?”
Was
a much truer question. In
experiencing loss we join the largest family of all—the human family.=
Our loss to be seen clearly, shoul=
d be
seen in the light of the common human, global experience.
So
it is simply unrealistic and even maybe a bit arrogant to expect to live an
entire lifetime free of disappointment and suffering.
So
when we suffer we just join the biggest group there is ---God knows, which =
is
why the cross can be such a comfort---God in Christ knows.
Suffering
is a given and if there is to be meaning at all it needs to be found in it.=
It is in accepting this hard truth=
that
Gerald Sittser began to discover grace disguised.
POWERPOINT FIVE:=
The first and hardest gift of a
“grace disguised”:
&=
nbsp; A
willingness to face the loss and enter into the darkness.
Gerald
began to receive this grace when slowly it dawned on him how holy and sacred
were the simplest things we get to do—the mundane everyday--how simply
being alive was so holy~he saw himself typing exams, talking to his student=
s,
tucking in his kids at night and he began&=
nbsp;
to sense he was holding something sacred.
“Bedtime
with Catherine, David and John allowed me to convey the blessing and love of
God to them. I was not fully =
alive
to these ordinary moments, but I began to glimpse how profound they
were.”
ADD TO FIVE: “…though I experienced
death, I also experienced life in ways that I would have never thought poss=
ible
before—not after the darkness, as we might suppose, but in the darkness. I did not go through the pain and =
come
out on the other side; instead I lived in it and found within the pain the
grace to survive and eventually grow.
I did not get over the loss of my loved ones; rather I absorbed the =
loss
into my life, like soil receiving decaying matter, until it became a part of
who I am. Sorrow toke up perm=
anent
residence in my soul and enlarged it.
I learned gradually that the deeper we plunge into suffering, the de=
eper
we can enter into a new, and different life—a life no worse than befo=
re
and sometimes better. A willi=
ngness
to face the loss and to enter into the darkness is the first step we must
take. Like all first steps, i=
t is
probably the most difficult and takes the most time.” Pg 37
Recovery =
from the great losses in our l=
ives
can be a harmful if we have unrealistic expectations that we will be able to
resume the way we lived and felt prior to the loss. But we can live enlarged by loss e=
ven as
we continue to experience it.
We
are all disciples of Thomas, the twin.&nbs=
p;
We want so much to touch what death cannot destroy—and donR=
17;t
we? Don’t we long to to=
uch
what death cannot destroy?
We
want to place a hand on the wound that has healed. Touch the scares that have lead to=
the
surprise of resurrection, not the inevitability of death.
We
want to believe that our souls can grow through loss. The Christian story is not of gett=
ing
over loss but of living through it.
Not denying death, but not allowing it victory.
POWERPOINT SIX:<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> “Death has been swallowed up=
in
victory. Where, O Death is your victory?&n=
bsp;
Where, O Death is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15: 55
“I conside=
r the
sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is=
to
be revealed to us….for who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?” Romans 8: 18 &=
amp;
35
POWERPOINT SEVEN=
: 2ND Gift of a grace
disguised=3Dgenuine sorrow is the sign of a healthy, not a sick soul.
We
are not talking about being fatalistic or morbid.
Jesus
said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”=
; Sorrow shows people living authent=
ically
in a world of misery and expressing that pain for themselves and for others=
.
Sorrow
is noble and gracious. Sittser
speaks of the soul as being elastic, like a balloon. I can be enlarged by loss so that
“it is capable of mourning and rejoicing simultaneously—feeling=
the
world’s pain and hoping for the world’s healing at the same
time. Sorrow brings the sacred
gifts of compassion and empathy.
POWERPOINT EIGHT=
: “However painful , sorrow is good for the soul.” Sittse=
r
Ø
Forces
us to ask basic questions about what is most important in life. Professor Sittster says it can be
“wonderfully clarifying.”
Which is why some people who suffer sudden severe loss often become
different people. Spend more =
time
with their children and significant others, express more affection and
appreciation for friends, are more concerned for wounded people….give
more of themselves.
Ø
Few
people in their 70’s say, “I just wish I had spent more time in=
the
office!” To say no to
competition, no to pressure, no to maintaining an image, no to our own
selfishness.
Jesus
weighs in: “What good i=
s it
for a man or a woman to gain the whole world, and yet forfeit their own
souls?” Loss invi=
te us
to ask the important questions:
What do I believe? Wha=
t kind
of person am I becoming? How =
am I
using the resources of my life?
Ø
We
touched on this earlier—what theo. Jean Cassal calls “the sacra=
ment
of the present moment.”
To
receive a grace disguised requires an act of faith. The faith that however painful our
losses, life is still good, for love is still Lord.
Doctor
Sittser, “I will never =
get
over my loss or stop misings my loved ones. I long for them with all my soul, =
but I
still celebrate the life I have found.&nbs=
p;
I lost the world I lov=
ed but
I gained a deeper awareness of grace.”
A
last lesson of hidden grace. =
You
would think that Gerald Sittser had suffered enough—had more than his
share of life’s unfairness, but then the man that killed his family w=
as
set free on a technicality. G=
erald
was enraged! But over time he=
began
to be bothered by the assumption that he wanted a world that was perfectly
fair.
“I
did not deserve to lose three members of my family. But then again, I am not sure deserved to have them in the first
place.” These wondrous =
three
people—didn’t deserve their deaths but how did I deserve their
loving lives?
POWERPOINT NINE: “The problem of expecting to=
live
in a perfectly fair world is that there is no grace in that world, for grac=
e is
grace only when it is
undeserved.” Gerald
Sittser.
![](3D"Sermon2009-08-23SummerThunder5AGraceDisguised_files/image002.gif")
Film clip comes up next.
Victor
Hugo’s Les Miserables, --=
the
story of Jean Valjean—19 yrs. In jail for stealing bread & then
trying to escape imprisonment.
Sentence and suffering are undeserved—unjust society. Becoming brooding and bitter. Gets worse when he has to suffer j=
ust
for being and ex-con. He believes he is returns to the free world just to
starve again. On the way to meet his parole officer after serving his time =
he
seeks lodging at the home of a Catholic Bishop, who welcomes him and treats=
him
with genuine kindness. All Va=
ljean
sees is an opportunity to exploit.
So in the middle of the night he gets up to steal from the bishop.
Les
Miserables, Scene 3~BEGINS at his dream after he says to the Bishop:
“..in the morning I’ll be a new man.” ENDS at approx. 3:00 with the Bishops w=
ords,
“I give you back to God.”
USE ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
“You
no longer belong to evil. I h=
ave
ransomed you. I give you back=
to
God.” In that moment
Valjean’s bitterness is broken.
The rest of the story is a life lived in grace—raises an orpha=
n,
spares the life of a police man that has done all he can to hurt him, to se=
nt
him back to the hell of prison. He
saves the life of a young man who will become his son-in-law and lives in j=
oy.
Jean
began by trying to get what he thought he deserved, but then his encounter =
with
mercy changed his mind and he became a merciful person himself. His life was both miserable and
good. His suffering was an un=
deserved
mystery but so was his redemption. &n=
bsp;
POWERPOINT TEN:<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The last gift of grace~to save us =
from a
completely fair world.
Gerald
Sittser hated and dreaded experiencing undeserved pain, but learned it was
worth it to experience undeserved grace.&n=
bsp;
And I with join him in saying spare me from a life of absolute fairn=
ess,
for to live in a world where grace rules is far better.
A
fair world? Well, that would =
be
nice, but only as nice as we are.
Do you really want to receive what you deserve?
For
me, I’ll take grace that God has placed everywhere and even disguised=
in
the midst of suffering.
One
stands before you know. He ta=
kes
you by the shoulders. He look=
s in
your eye. “You no longer
belong to evil, nothing can separate you from my love and my grace. I have ransomed you. I give you back to God.
Rowe = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = Page 5 of 5 &n= bsp; Summer Thunder~#5 in Grace series