My apologies if you find what follows a bit inappropriate
when we are coming to the first anniversary of Sept 11
but there is a serious point to these reflections
on what to do when a plane is likely to crash and there is only one parachute
The Pessimist refuses the parachute
because you might die on the jump anyway.
The Optimist refuses the parachute
because people have survived crashes just like this before.
The Bureaucrat orders them to conduct a feasibility study
on parachute use in multi-engine aircraft under code red conditions.
The Lawyer charges one parachute for helping them sue the airline.
The Doctor tells them he needs to run more tests,
then takes the parachute in order to make his next appointment.
The Salesman sells the parachute at top retail rates
and gets the names of their friends and relatives who might like one too.
The Scientist gives the parachute and asks for a report on how well it worked.
The Philosopher asks how they know the parachute actually exists.
The Psychoanalyst asks what the shape of a parachute reminds them of.
The Artist hangs the parachute up and signs it.
The Environmentalist refuses to use the parachute unless it is biodegradable.
The Christian gives the parachute away because his eternity is secure!
It is hard for us to imagine what it was like for the passengers
on those doomed planes a year ago
There was a documentary last week on Flight 93
where the passengers rushed the hi-jackers
which was a moving attempt to show as much as we know of what happened
from the phone links with the ground.
Two things stood out for me among the courage, the pain, the fear,
people phoning their families just to say 'I love you'
and people praying.
Another thing we don't know
is if anyone not previously at peace with God
repneted and belived in their final moments.
What was clear from what their loved ones said about them
was that people reacted according to their known characters
As they had lived, so they reacted in this awesome appalling tragedy.
It can happen that a life threatening event radically & swiftly changes people.
There may be heroism or the opposite which we never dreamed was there,
there may be a reaching out to God in repentance and faith;
but never depend upon it.
What is more likely to happen
is that the decisions and responses and commitments we made years earlier
will shape how we react on the day of great trial.
In the face of great trauma
Bitter people become more bitter
faithful people deepen faith
selfish people look around for someone else to blame
but loving trusting Christians give their parachute away
After seeing that programme Heather & I asked the question:
What would you do, if you were on that plane?.
An uncomfortable question, but one that should be tackled
not at the moment of crisis, that's probably too late
but in our quieter moments like these
when we can reflect on how our life is going
and how securely can we face the big questions
of how we will die and how we can face God in judgement.
questions about suffering, death, sin & peace with God.
So we come to Hebrews c 2.
Remembering our theme
'keep looking to Jesus and never give up'
Writer to the Hebrews is very honest & realistic about the way things are
in a disordered world.
8b at present we do not see everything subject to him
things still go wrong, get messed up
terrible things within living memory
Auschwitz, the Twin Towers, Soham, famine in Southern Africa
or the small but real agonies which we have personally
which make us ask Why, Lord why?
9 we see Jesus , who was made a little lower than the angels
now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death
so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone'
Jesus can help us because he is not an angel, he is greater than an angel
-- an angel might have zoomed in to this world
given a quick fix and flown away without getting touched
or like all those wolrd leaders flying into the earth summit in S Africa
making their 5 minute speech and flying out again
but Jesus is as the writer calls him at the beginning of c 3
God's ultimate Apostle God's missionary, God's representative
who demonstrates to us everything that God would have us know
and who 'earths' that because he has been here
not on a quick trip for a quick fix
but for thirty years or so to share all the weakness & frustration
of human life, suffering and death
that's what is meant in v10 perfect through suffering
not that he was imperfect as a child
but this means that Jesus has a perfection that has been through everything,
tried and tested
As it says in the old Presbyterian paraphrase
"Though now ascended up on high/ he bends on earth a brother's eye
Partaker of the human name/ he knows the frailty of our frame
Our fellow sufferer yet retains / a fellow-feeling of our pains;
and still remembers in the skies / his tears his agonies and cries
In every pang that rends the heart / the Man of Sorrows had a part;
he sympathises with our grief / and to the sufferer sends relief."
Not the greatest poetry perhaps but a profound truth
that Jesus knows, Jesus cares, Jesus has been here.
We do not see everything yet subject to him... but we may see Jesus
And that applies in the ultimate expression of suffering which is death
and that aspect of death which holds us in slavery because of fear
not only what happens when we die
but even more what happens afterwards
Jesus who now sits with his Father in heaven
can in a sense sit down beside us and say to us
I know, I have suffered; I know, I have died
And he says that to the devil too (14):
who holds in his grip through our fear of death
'Set my people free: they are no longer condemned to eternal death.
I have died for them, I have paid the penalty they deserved
There is the answer for another question that is asked less often
than the questions about suffering and death
but it is the crunch question without which we have no deep peace
the question: How can my sin be dealt with?
How can I be clean and right before a holy and pure God?
How can I ever hope to be near God? How could I be fit for heaven?
Answer: Jesus is the merciful and faithful high priest
who has made atonement for the sins of the people
What the OT grasped after in the system of sacrifices
offered by the priests, seeking to make things right with God
Jesus has achieved for us in his suffering and death
As Isaac Watts puts it in the hymn (Join all the glorious names 78)
'Jesus my great high priest, offered his blood and died;
My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside'
An answer to suffering, death, sin which we must take to our hearts
As our reading ends 3.1 'holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling'
-- (brothers and sisters of Jesus who has shared our life
and who are committed in turn to him)
'fix your thoughts on Jesus the apostle and high priest whom we confess'
Fix your thoughts on Jesus
you do not see everything yet subject to him
you have your questions, your sorrows, your searchings
but you may see Jesus, concentrate on him
Bishop Handley Moule writing on this passage 100 years ago
applied it to the spiritual struggles of the Church of England
using the idea if you want deal with surface of a problem
you need to get to the heart of it.
Although our struggles are different we have the same solution
'If you would deal aright with the circumference,
earnest Christian of the English Church
live at the Centre 'Dwell deep'
From the church come back evermore to Jesus Christ
that from Jesus Christ you may the better go back to the Church,
bearing the peace and the power of the Lord himself upon you'
Whatever the problems on the outer edge of our lives
and sometimes going deeper
whatever questions about suffering fear of death fear of judgement
earnest Christian of the Irish church
'dwell deep' consider Jesus, fix your thoughts on him.
A problem with fear of death? Keep looking to Jesus
A problem with money, too much month and not enough money
Keep looking to Jesus
With friends you've fallen out with Keep looking to Jesus
When bad things happen to good people? Keep looking to Jesus
When there aren't any parachutes? Keep looking to Jesus
He has been there . He will be with us in the valley of the shadow of death
and of everything that makes us afraid
But make time now to meet him and know him and have your life shaped by him.
Abide in Christ and in him bear much fruit
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