In high school, my Young Life leader shared a sermon with a small group of us that has had a profound impact on my life. It's given by a pastor named Bruce Thielemann, from Pittsburgh, and judging by the manner of speaking and the references in the sermon, it's probably from the early 80's. It's loosely based around Acts 5.
Thielemann begins his sermon in this way:
"I'm deeply and personally convinced that the Christian life is to be an exciting and a joyous experience. I think we are to be living lives which are thrilling to behold, exciting to watch, ennobling, enkindling, enabling, enthusiastic. That is what the Christian life is supposed to be."I love it. Thielemann goes on to discuss the counsel given by Gamaliel, a Pharisee, in Acts 5. In the passage, the citizenry become enraged by the teaching of the Apostles, and want to kill them. Gamamiel, who was "held in honor by all people," stood up and dispensed his wisdom to the crowd. With apologies for the paraphrasing, here's what he said: "People, I know you're upset ... but the best thing we can do is.... nothing."
Sound advice? It seems logical, and, to steal from Frodo, "would seem like wisdom but for the warning in my heart." Do nothing? Make no decision, take no risk? The problem is that doing nothing is all too common an answer for the Pharisees.
Thielemann then uses the words of surfing legend Phil Edwards to describe those who, like the Pharisees, do nothing.
"There is a need in all of us for controlled danger. That is, there is a need for an activity that puts us on the edge of life. There are uncounted millions of people, right now, who are going through life without any sort of real vibrant kick. I call them the legions of the unjazzed."The legions of the unjazzed. To keep with the surfing metaphor, as Thielemann does, these are the people who never get out into the big waves. Maybe they splash around in the shallows. Maybe they play in the puddles, like C.S. Lewis describes. Maybe they can build the best sandcastles on the beach, but the fact remains that they're avoiding something bigger. Thielemann
"If you're going to get out to where the big waves are, you can expect to be beaten up a little bit," Thieleman continues. It's true, we get tossed around and beaten up when we take get into the deep water. We'll frequently get slammed against the ocean floor – tossed and turned by the turbulent power of the waves. It's a rough and experience, but one that locks you into being alive. The disciples in Acts 5 are living this out in living by faith. They're out in the big waves.
Thielemann concludes with a wonderful descriptive passage, and it would not do anyone service for me to paraphrase it.
"When you get into one of the truly big waves off the islands of the Pacific, there is a time when if you ride the wave properly, you can crest the curl, and coming down the other side turn into the wave so that the wave curls over your head. In that moment you find yourself in a tunnel of water. It swirls all about you, like a whirling green cathedral. The water above is most thin, and the sunlight coming down spangles it so that it looks like green diamonds. And it's absolutely silent in there; you cannot hear a sound. And if you want to, you can lean back against the wall of water behind you, and it lifts you and carries you like a pillow. Now you can never know that, what it's like to be carried, what it's like to be in a whirling green cathedral, what it's like to have life spangled with diamonds -- you can never know that until you move into the midst of the wave, until you say 'yes' to God's dares."Amen. May our faith teach us to lean into the waves of life, meeting the challenges that are before us. May we always be riding through life on a surfboard with God.
((I have an MP3 of this entire sermon, and if you'd like to listen, please let me know.))
