Revelation 5:1-14
Third Sunday of Easter
22 April 2007
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
What is your faith story?
Now I wish you could all see yourselves from the perspective that I see you right now. It is very obvious that I just asked that question to a church full of 80 Lutherans – or at least those who are comfortable among Lutherans. If I had asked that question to a church full of 80 Baptists or Evangelical Pentecostals, I would have had 60 people instantly start telling me their testimony, while the other 20 in the church who didn’t yet have a dramatic testimony would be running forward thinking I had said something about an altar call.
Peter and the other disciples had quite the faith story to tell after that early morning rendevous with Jesus [John 21:1-19]. They had quite the faith story to tell even before that early morning breakfast, but imagine being able to tell people the story that they had after that morning. Imagine being able to tell people the intimate details about spending three years with Jesus, about witnessing Him being crucified by the Roman officials, about the rumors – confirmed or unconfirmed – about His resurrection from the grave. Imagine Peter telling how he had basically given up hope and had returned to his former occupation, as he said in our Gospel today, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m going out to fish.” Imagine telling people about laboring all night, not catching even a single fish, wondering if you had indeed made the correct decision in returning to fishing. Imagine telling people about that hot-shot stranger standing on the shore giving advice to you seasoned fishermen. Imagine telling about catch of 153 fish in one net. Imagine telling people about Peter being so excited that jumped into the water, wading the last 100 yards. Imagine telling people about Jesus standing there cooking breakfast. Imagine telling people about that breakfast, made by the very hands of God Himself, the same hands that made the hands of Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck and Julia Childs. Oh, for a faith story like that!
Or how about St. Paul [Acts 9:1-22]? Now that’s quite the story to be able to tell! How would you like to be able to tell people about having been so consumed with anger and hatred against Jesus and His followers that you were willing to not only hunt them down, but also to stand there and witness them being stoned to death, as Paul did at the stoning of Stephen [Acts 8:1]. Imagine being able to tell about that bright light that knocked you off your horse, or about that booming voice that demanded an answer for your actions. Imagine sitting in darkness – blinded – helpless – until a man who had been on your own personal “10 Most Wanted List” called you by name and touched you, restoring your eyesight. Imagine being able to tell about hearing that your name was being changed and that you would become the most effective missionary Jesus Christ in the history of the world. Now that’s a story to tell.
My friends, let’s face supposed facts this morning. Few of us have a faith story that would rival that of Peter or Paul. Few of us have a faith story as dramatic as Isaac Newton, that former slave trader who would come to know the Lord Jesus and later write the powerful words of “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me”
I, for one, know that I don’t have an exciting faith story. I was born on June 26. I was baptized into the family of God at less that 2 months old. I had no dramatic conversion in my life that inspired me to become a minister – no, that call of God has always just kind of “been there” in my life. Dramatic? Not really. Sorry. But, you know, when you stop to think about it, it may not be a dramatic story, but it MY story. It is also history – HIS STORY – in me!
Your story might be just as undramatic, but it is YOUR story and it’s history – HIS STORY – in you!
Yesterday in the Pasadena Star-News was the story of our own Abe Moore, that simple Texas native who became a Tuskegee Airman and who, fifty years later, would find his face included on the memorial wall honoring the Tuskegee Airmen on permanent display at the Palm Springs Air Museum. It’s a great story. It’s a great story that I never heard Abe tell in life. He was truly a Lutheran in that way.
We’ve got some other great stories here. We’ve got the story of Helga Muder surviving night after night of bombing raids in Berlin during World War 2, waking up one morning to discover that her beautiful church across the street from her home had been destroyed by a bomb. We’ve got the story of Mark McCormick, learning to read music as a child by looking at hymns in the hymnal. Today he works for one of the top names in the music industry. We’ve got the story of Ocilda Files and how she went looking for a church where she could raise their youngest son while, at the same time, deep down hoping one day that church would be a place where her husband would follow her back to church.
Each one of us has a story. In the end, each one of our stories is not our story but it is history – HIS STORY – in us. And, in the end, our stories should not just be about us, but they should reflect the question that St. John heard asked in Heaven [Revelation 5:1-14], “Who is worthy?” Our stories should also reflect the answer to that question, “Worthy is Christ, the Lamb, Who was slain, to receive power and wealth and strength and honor and glory and praise.”
You see, we often don’t tell our stories because we believe they should be about us and that they should be dramatic, as if we’re in some kind of competition with each other. However, our faith stories should always point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because I, honestly, as good a pastor as I might be, will never die on a cross for the sins of the world. Neither will any of you. But Jesus Christ already has. And Jesus Christ did that so that He could make that breakfast for those disciples at daybreak. Jesus Christ died and rose again so that He could give St. Paul a story to tell to the nations. Jesus Christ died and rose again so that I – and each of you – could be born and reborn through baptism and live our daily lives telling our stories and pointing to Him, “Worthy is Christ, the Lamb Who slain.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena