IT ISN’T OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER

Luke 13:32:

He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’”

Two weeks ago I was in Eau Claire preaching to the congregation of First Congregational UCC on the occasion of their sesquicentennial. I served that church for thirteen years from 1972 to 1985. I rediscovered something that I discover every time I return to the scene of some previous life. I’m not the same person I was. No big surprise! It began when I walked up the walk with an older member who said to me, “Boy, you look different!”

I was reminded of other occasions when I went back to places I no longer belonged. Once when I was visiting friends in Eau Claire, I was eating in a restaurant on Grand Avenue on the west side of the Chippewa River. The geographic reference is for the benefit of the many people here who were students at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. As I was eating, a woman came up to me and asked, “Didn’t you used to be Jake Close?” I knew then that my decline had begun, that I was a mere shadow of my former self. Not long after that I was greeted by some people who had been in the church in Eau Claire whom I had not seen in some time. They said to me, “Oh we just loved your sermons, each one was better than the next.” I knew then and there that my collapse was total. You can imagine how far I’ve declined since then. And yet, here I am still doing interim ministry and God has not told me it’s all over.

This all makes me turn my thoughts to the gospel text for today. The Pharisees, the ancestors of modern Rabbis, in an uncharacteristic gesture of concern for Jesus, came to warn him that Herod wanted to put him to death. Jesus’ response was brief and to the point. “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’” In other words, Herod has no power where God has decided the course of events.

You no doubt have heard the saying, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans.” In this Lenten season, on this second Sunday in Lent, it behooves us to consider carefully what our intentions are.

Imagine the human arrogance of one like Herod putting out a contract on Jesus. Of course he could have crushed Jesus, after all he had the might of Rome behind him and that might could bring crucifixion at any moment. It could have occurred at any time. That was not God’s plan. Herod may have thought that that was the end of it when he had put Jesus to death, but that is not what God had in mind.

Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem indicated that God’s plan had not yet unfolded. The time and place were not yet in perfect alignment. Jesus was not yet in Jerusalem. God’s glory could be witnessed by so many more people at the Feast of the Passover in the capitol city, Jerusalem. That is where Jesus was going and that is the one reason for his journey there – to glorify God through this redemptive act.

When companies want to launch new advertising initiatives on television, they don’t do it in the summer when people are outdoors and at the cottage or the lake. They wait until the Super Bowl when we are indoors and they have our full attention. It is then that people will watch the game, not so much to see the game but to watch to see the best and the brightest of the new advertisements. It is then that advertisers will pay millions for a thirty second spot on national television. That is when their glory unfolds.

When the game is over, so is their glory for another year. The lights go out, the attention of the world is gone, and next year the advertisers have to revive their creative talents and try it all over again, but when it is over it is over.

God’s glory unfolds in a totally different way than we expect or even want to contemplate. How can the cross be a symbol of glory? What kind of mind would it take to dream up a scheme so bizarre that would bring glory out of a crucifixion? How can death bring new life? Our minds are not tuned into such events in a way that will allow us to conceive of any good coming from such a humiliating death. For us, when the cross has done its work, it is over. There is nothing more. God’s surprising ways say, “Wait a minute, my work is not done. I am not finished with this yet. The work of redemption is not complete without a surprise ending.” If the story ended on that cross it would be a normal event, but Jesus finishes his work in grand style by giving us new hope, new life.

Many times I have faced with someone who is bedridden and seemingly unable to do much of what they want to do or did in other times the question of the usefulness of their lives. Their plaint takes shape something like this, “I don’t know why I’m living. I don’t know what God has in mind for me. Why isn’t God finished with me?” There is no easy answer to such an inquiry, at least not one I can supply. I do know that so long as there is breath and will of the mind that we can pray for one another on this journey we call life. That may not be a satisfying answer, but it is a necessary one.

That raises the question for all of us, “What is it that God has in store for me?” That always comes to mind when I think of the person who asked, “Didn’t you used to be Jake Close?” I know that God is not finished with me yet, at least this moment. I know that God is not finished with you yet. We often joke about aging in my Bible Study classes on Wednesday morning and night. Many of us have lived the full and rich lives as God has given us the power to enjoy. But among those who are in those classes there is a vitality of spirit and mind that inspires and questions and witnesses to the mighty acts of God. It is not over for those lovely people nor for you.

Many of you are engaged in community shaping and changing ministries and show that God is not done with you yet and that it is not over for you. I applaud you. I applaud you if you are not able to do any of those things but are able to pray for those who do.

You see, God always supplies surprise endings for us, and it’s not over until God says it is over.

Sermon preached by Reverend Jake Close at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on March 4, 2007.