What are you writing there? Oh, nothing. Come on, let me see. What are all these things? It’s my Bucket List. What’s a bucket list? Oh, it’s just a list of things I want to do before I kick the bucket. With that brief exchange, the characters portrayed by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson begin a journey from despair to hope. A journey that would be filled with surprises, like all of our lives are, but also a journey that would renew their faith, bring the best out in them and by the way powerfully change the items on their Bucket List. A journey that for me holds some striking similarities to the journey of faith for our Lord and Paul that are described in today’s scripture lessons. A journey that can provide some wonderful guidance and inspiration for the journey we will take in 2008.
Let’s begin our reflection on these journeys by admitting the fact that there are times in life when we feel that we have run into a physical or spiritual brick wall that creates a sense of despair that can be overwhelming for us. You know that they say a picture can be worth a thousand words and the picture I suggest from the film The Bucket List that captures the essence of the sense of despair that can overwhelm us is the picture of Jack Nicholson being prostrate in bed after he has heard his terminal diagnosis and all the physical and spiritual energy he can muster is to look aimlessly up at the ceiling. Yes, Jack’s character has given up and at that moment in his journey it would seem that he would spend the balance of his life being in that bed overwhelmed by a sense of despair
Now do you think it is fair to believe that a very similar picture may have occurred in the small, dark prison cell in which Paul thought he would spend the rest of his life. Friends, let me tell you something you already know. Life can be difficult, oh so difficult. I can think of so many illustrations of that reality but the one I will mention occurred just this past Wednesday when I was back at the first Church we served with, which is the Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, to participate in a funeral. You might think that the source of difficulty was the funeral itself but that was not the case because the funeral was a glorious, hope-filled celebration for a long-time member who had lived for 97 years and had let everyone know of her firm conviction about the better life to come. But following this joyful celebration of hope, I stopped in to see a couple who had been good friends during and beyond our time at Old First and yet who we did not hear from this Christmas. When they came to the door and the wife saw me, she broke down in tears. Don’t you love it when people are so happy to see you? These tears were not for herself but for her daughter, Jamie. Jamie was in my first Confirmation Class student and for any of the Confirmation Class students here today let me tell you this; poor Jamie was the only student in the class. Can you imagine what fun that was for Jamie? She had to answer every question, she was in charge of every special Confirmation activity and finally, she had to face the Elders all by herself. But Jamie did well and she and her family are very special friends but their journey wasn’t always easy. One of the challenges that Jamie and her husband Joseph faced, which is the same challenge being faced by two couples who we pray for every Sunday, is the challenge to have a child. For years they struggled and then 8 years ago their prayers were answered in the form of a beautiful daughter named Jillian. But now 8 years later the grandparents, whose prayers had also been answered, were crying because their precious gift from God was suffering. Why can’t it be us? Why must it be Jill, they asked me knowing that they were asking a question I couldn’t answer but they had to ask anyway. She was such a bright and gifted child with a thirst for education but last year she had been diagnosed with dyslexia and though she desperately wants to read, at this point she can’t. Oh yes, our friends know that compared to the struggles of other children like Michella who needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant, Jillian’s issues were far less but when you are talking about a loved one, no one’s issues are more important and so we cried together and then prayed together and as I drove away, I continued to pray and I asked God a question I’ve asked him so many times: Why? Why does life have to be a so difficult at times? And of course I knew even as I prayed all of the correct theological responses but I still cried and wished that along my communion kit, they had also provided me with a magic wand to wave at all of the physical and spiritual pain of life but that’s not how it works and so at times we lie in bed and look aimlessly at a ceiling and find ourselves living on the edge of despair. And that’s okay. There is nothing sinful about feeling forsaken by God at times. Paul likely felt that way in his prison cell. Our Lord clearly felt that way on the cross when he prayed My God, why have you forsaken me and the heroes of the film “The Bucket List” felt that way also.
But praise God that in all three of these stories and in our own story, the journey does not end in despair. So it is that following his time of despair, the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson stops looking at the ceiling and finds the strength and the faith to look at the future. And through the creation of their bucket list and, more importantly, in their pursuit of accomplishing each item on their bucket list, their journey towards hope begins. Clearly, that is the same journey Paul took in his prison cell. For no matter how great his sense of despair might have been during the early days of his prison term, at some point he too stopped looking at the ceiling of that prison cell and found the strength and the faith to look towards the future. And what did he see? He saw the reality that the early Church faced many challenges and so rather then spend his days of isolation in despair he would use this forced time of captivity for the purpose of writing letters of guidance and encouragement to the early Church. And what was at the heart of his message to the early Church? Not what we might expect from an author who wrote from a prison cell. For they were not words of despair or even perseverance, rather they were words of victory and hope and so knowing that his final days might be spent in the painful and deprived environment of a Roman prison cell, Paul writes: Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! Those wonderful words from Paul came pounding upon my heart in one of the great scenes in the Bucket List in which the two heroes are sitting on top of a pyramid in Egypt looking at a beautiful sunset and Morgan Freeman asks Jack Nicholson two questions which for him summarize what a positive and faith filled life is all about. The two questions are: Have you found joy in your life? And, Has your life created joy in the life of others? It is these two questions and Nicholson’s response to them that transforms the Bucket List into a must see movie. It is also these same two questions and our response to them that will have a tremendous impact upon what 2008 will be like for ourselves, our loved ones and all of those who are positively effected through our commitment to the best of our ability to live by these words: Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
But you know as well as I do that living such a joyful life can be a great challenge. It was a challenge for the fictional characters of the Bucket List. It was a challenge for Paul in his prison cell. It was a challenge for our Lord on the cross. And yes, if it hasn’t already been, at some point in 2008 it will be a challenge for you and me. As we think about that reality, consider this quote which comes to us courtesy of this past Tuesday’s Bible Study:
Any life challenge presents us with a basic choice: fear or faith? For you see, difficulties can’t separate us from Godonly fear can. And fear in its purest form is really unbelief, the false conviction that “God can’t, God won’t…so I must.” Faith, on the other hand, chooses to believe that “God can, God wants to, and God will…so I choose to trust Him with my life.” Can fear and faith coexist in one person? Of course they can…and they do. As long as we live on earth. But the more we persist in faith, obeying God and opening our hearts to His love, the weaker fear becomes. Because, in the end, faith and fear are mutually exclusive. Only one can rule our hearts. And only faith offers us the gift of quietness and rest.
Faith ruling in our hearts at all times and in all situations. What better example can we think of than our Lord on the cross facing the greatest physical and spiritual challenge in his life and responding with the words Father (with confidence and with faith) I place my spirit into your hands! Yes, in the ordinary event of life, as well as in those extraordinary times like the fictional character in the Bucket List, Paul in prison, our Lord on the cross, life challenges present us the basic choice fear or faith. By God’s grace may we choose faith and thus learn to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
overwhelming for us. You know that they say a picture can be worth a thousand words and the picture I suggest from the film The Bucket List that captures the essence of the sense of despair that can overwhelm us is the picture of Jack Nicholson being prostrate in bed after he has heard his terminal diagnosis and all the physical and spiritual energy he can muster is to look aimlessly up at the ceiling. Yes, Jack’s character has given up and at that moment in his journey it would seem that he would spend the balance of his life being in that bed overwhelmed by a sense of despair
Can you imagine what fun that was for Jamie? She had to answer every question, she was in charge of every special Confirmation activity and finally, she had to face the Elders all by herself. But Jamie did well and she and her family are very special friends but their journey wasn’t always easy. One of the challenges that Jamie and her husband Joseph faced, which is the same challenge being faced by two couples who we pray for every Sunday, is the challenge to have a child. For years they struggled and then 8 years ago their prayers were answered in the form of a beautiful daughter named Jillian. But now 8 years later the grandparents, whose prayers had also been answered, were crying because their precious gift from God was suffering. Why can’t it be us? Why must it be Jill, they asked me knowing that they were asking a question I couldn’t answer but they had to ask anyway. She was such a bright and gifted child with a thirst for education but last year she had been diagnosed with dyslexia and though she desperately wants to read, at this point she can’t. Oh yes, our friends know that compared to the struggles of other children like Michella who needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant, Jillian’s issues were far less but when you are talking about a loved one, no one’s issues are more important and so we cried together and then prayed together and as I drove away, I continued to pray and I asked God a question I’ve asked him so many times: Why? Why does life have to be a so difficult at times? And of course I knew even as I prayed all of the correct theological responses but I still cried and wished that along my communion kit, they had also provided me with a magic wand to wave at all of the physical and spiritual pain of life but that’s not how it works and so at times we lie in bed and look aimlessly at a ceiling and find ourselves living on the edge of despair. And that’s okay. There is nothing sinful about feeling forsaken by God at times. Paul likely felt that way in his prison cell. Our Lord clearly felt that way on the cross when he prayed My God, why have you forsaken me and the heroes of the film “The Bucket List” felt that way also.