Return to Your Rest

Three guys go down to Mexico one night, get drunk and wake up in jail. They find out that they're to be executed for their crimes but none of them can remember what they have done.

The first one is strapped in the electric chair and is asked if he has any last words. He says, "I am a priest and I believe in the almighty power of God to intervene on behalf of the innocent." They throw the switch and nothing happens; so they figure God must not want this guy to die, and let him go.

The second one is strapped in and gives his last words. "I am an attorney and I believe in the eternal power of Justice to intervene on the part of the innocent." The switch is thrown and again nothing happens.

Figuring the law is on this guy's side, they let him go. The last one is strapped in and say's "I'm an electrical engineer, and I'll tell you right now, you'll never electrocute anybody if you don't connect those two wires." God rest his soul.

We do get ourselves into situations when Psalm 116:3-4 (NRSV) The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”

Easter is God’s answer. Resurrection is God’s promise. God saves our life. God saves it for all eternity. God saves it here and now so we can say: Psalm 116:7 (NRSV) Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

To help us heed this invitation, we will explore the snares of death and the pangs of Sheol, and then we will return to our rest.

NTHE SNARES OF DEATH AND THE PANGS OF SHEOL

Easter demonstrates God’s defeat of death. Jesus’ resurrection represents eternal life overcoming every power to hurt and destroy.

The Psalmist is well-aware of these powers. He kept the faith even when he was pushed to his limits. One of my Bibles calls Psalm 116 a “Thanksgiving for Recovery from Illness.” The words certainly are appropriate for that, but Psalm 116:6 (NRSV) The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. And Psalm 116:11 (NRSV) I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.” Suggest that the Psalmist’s distress was due to either his own mistakes, his “simple-ness” or to his being betrayed by someone.

Add to this the fact that this Psalm is part of the Passover ritual; it is likely that this was one of the Psalms that Jesus and the disciples sang in the upper room on the night he was betrayed and these words become more ominous. They foreshadow Judas’ treachery, Peter’s denial, and the disciples’ desertion.

“The snares of death and the pangs of Sheol” therefore are more than the suffering we experience at the end of our lives. They are also the suffering we experience in the midst of our lives. They are the stress we feel when our lives are spiraling out of control; the anxiety we experience when we feel betrayed by people we thought we could trust or when people we thought we could count on let us down. “How could we be so stupid?” Surely Jean Paul Sartre was on to something when he wrote, “Hell is other people.”

“Where distress and its tears, and anguish and its stumbling, grasp the living, one is already in the sphere and power of death. The living are not dead, but death conditions their living.”

Easter liberates us from that “death conditioned living.” Resurrection is more than how we will live after this life; it empowers us to live in this life. It allows us to confront the ways death’s power is at work in our lives and our world and say, “There is a better way. It doesn’t have to be like this. The power of life and love is greater than the power of death and hate.”

Simply put for simple folks like us: It doesn’t matter how we got into the mess. It doesn’t matter what the mess is. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault or who’s to blame. One thing matters; one thing alone – God raised Jesus from the dead. God saved us all in saving him. We leave the sphere of death and enter the sphere of salvation when we sing with the Psalmist, Psalm 116:1-2 (NRSV) I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

NRETURN TO YOUR REST

"Do you believe in life after death?" the boss asked one of his employees.

"Yes, Sir." the new recruit replied.

"Well, then, that makes everything just fine," the boss went on. "After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother's funeral, she stopped in to see you."

Do you believe in life after death? Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Do you believe that death is defeated in this life and in the life to come?

We can discuss history and philosophy; those are comfortable “outs” that allow us to evade the issue. But the question remains, “What do you believe?”

Some days, “I believe.” Some days, “I serve a risen Savior. He’s in the world today! “You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart.” Some days. But then there are the days like the Psalmist came through; the days when “the snares of death and the pangs of Sheol” have me in their grip.

I don’t believe on those days. I doubt. I fear. I am anxious and distressed. Then I come to worship. Maybe I can’t sing on that Sunday. It’s Milli Vanilli week and I lip sync; it wouldn’t do for the preacher not to praise! But you can sing. You can praise. And you lift me; you praise for me, and by the end of the service, I believe again. I return to my rest.

It’s not easy to keep the faith when we say, “I am greatly afflicted.” But when others keep it for us, the burden isn’t so heavy. Some Sundays you lift me. Some Sundays I lift you. The key thing, the vital thing, the life-giving thing in the midst of a world that deals in death is that we are in worship together. We come here and “return to our rest.”

We “return to our rest”, and we offer the world a foretaste of what that rest will be like. Our worship together bears witness to the reality of the resurrection.

We can discuss history and philosophy, but when we tell the story and the stories – the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the stories of the times when the sphere of death threatened to overwhelm us, but the life-giving grace of God saw us through – we experience the reality of the resurrection and we bear witness to that reality.

Last week, we experienced the power of personal testimony through the witness of our youth. The stewardship campaign of 2006 was also marked by the power of personal testimony. So here’s an open invitation: share your testimony. Tell your story. If you prefer, write it down and I’ll share it for you, even anonymously if you prefer. Share your testimony and see what happens in our worship and in our souls.

God is at work in our lives. God is at work in our church. Give thanks. Tell the story. The reality of the resurrection of Jesus, eternal life’s victory over the power of death, our salvation from “death conditioned living” is something we can experience; we can experience it in worship; we can experience it through the gift of personal testimony; and through our worship and our testimony, we can offer the world a foretaste of the good life God has in store every Sunday as we return to our rest. Amen.

http://jokes4all.net/jokes/death/jokes_2446.html

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

James L. Mays. Psalms. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1994. 370

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

http://www.e-jokes.net/death/012.html