How Do You Spell "Life?"

Sermon, April 16, 2000 (Palm Sunday)

As a little girl, Ann Marie Rozelle grew up in a home with a single parent. Her father was Pete Rozelle, then the commissioner of the National Football League. Pete Rozelle was a loving father, and wanted to give good gifts to his daughter. Her dream that year was to have a talking Barbie doll for Christmas; she really wanted to have it. She begged her Daddy for this talking Barbie, and Pete Rozelle went all over the city to every toy store he could find. Talking Barbie was like the Cabbage Patch dolls and the Talking Elmo and the Game Boy Color of other Christmas seasons; it sold out early and none of the stores had any remaining in stock. Whenever Pete Rozelle traveled to a city in his work he searched and searched for a talking Barbie, but to no avail. It was now three days before Christmas. Little Ann Marie kept looking under the tree for a Barbie-shaped box among any of the gifts, and of course she didn't see it, and he said to her, "Honey, I'm trying! There just may be no talking Barbies left anywhere, I'm doing everything I can but I just can't seem to find one." That night, three days before Christmas, Pete Rozelle called the Director of NFL properties and said, "Look, do whatever you have to do and don't worry about the expense...go wherever you have to go, spend as much as you have to spend, I really need to have a talking Barbie by Christmas morning!" So Christmas morning, Ann Marie woke up, she ran to the tree, and with her Dad by her side she started opening gifts. The Barbie-shaped box was right there, right under the tree; the director of NFL properties had come through and Dad was able to have it wrapped and ready in time, but she didn't see it. She was so involved with all the other gifts, and had already settled in her mind days ago, "Well, I'm just not going to get the Barbie doll." Finally Pete Rozelle said, "Honey, aren't you going to open that present?" And she looked where Dad was pointing, and her eyes grew wide, she hugged and kissed her father and ripped open the wrapping paper, got that Talking Barbie out of the box, and she took that doll and pulled the string...and the Talking Barbie said, "Hola! Me llamo Barbie! Donde esta Ken?"

Some fathers would go all the way to Mexico to get their children a precious gift. Friends, the message of this Holy Week is that our Father went to extravagant lengths, He went all the way to the ends of the earth and beyond, even to a cross, even to a grave, to give His children the greatest gift of all...the gift of LIFE abundant and eternal. Pete Rozelle went to great lengths to get that gift for his daughter...and God Almighty went to infinitely greater lengths to give us life. And not just life in the hereafter, but life that begins NOW. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life, and have it in all its fullness." Do you know people who have lives that are filled full? Is your life filled full? I dare say just about all of us have lives that are filled full. But the real question is, "Is your life full filled?" Are you enjoying this gift of life as Jesus would have you enjoy it? Are you living life in all its fullness, getting the very most out of life?

Many of you are familiar with Thornton Wilder's classic play, Our Town. In that play Emily, who has been dead fourteen years, is given permission to relive any day she chooses. She chooses to relive what she remembers as a happy twelfth birthday. Well, as predicted by her cemetery companion Mrs. Gibbs, Emily's experience is disastrous. Death and death's lessons had made Emily so acutely aware of the brevity and preciousness of life, that the activities of the living people she observed, things like small talk, preoccupation over insignificant details, people muttering about the weather...this had all become unbearable to her. In the play her mother's cheery breakfast prattle is unbearable. Emily begs her mother to look at her just once as if she really saw her, but of course her mother can't hear her. Emily experiences total failure to work even the slightest change in all she observed, and it leads to the chilling climax of the play: Emily cries in a loud voice to the stage manager: "I can't. I can't go on. It goes too fast. We don't have time to look at one another." She breaks down sobbing. "I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back -- up the hill -- to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Goodbye, Goodbye, world. Goodbye, Grover's Corners...Mama and Papa. Goodbye to clocks ticking...and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you." She looks toward the stage manager and asks abruptly, through her tears: "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -- every, every minute?" The stage manager replies, "No." Then a pause. "The saints and poets, maybe -- they do some." Replies Emily: "I'm ready to go back." She returns to her chair beside Mrs. Gibbs, her cemetery companion. There's another poignant pause. Mrs. Gibbs then asks, "Were you happy?" Emily responds, "No. I should have listened to you. That's all [living] human beings are! Just blind people."

"Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every moment?" Emily realized as she observed her living self that she was missing her parents while she was with them, they were missing her, they were all missing life due to their preoccupation with the things that fill life, the details, the small talk, and so on. Have you been missing life? Is your life so busy, so preoccupied, so filled full, that it is not fulfilling? Emily's experience resonates with me. Sitting at the Dana Farber Cancer Center week after week, and at Brigham Woman's Hospital, and finally in the quiet and bittersweet peacefulness of our master bedroom, I knew that while my wife was dying and while my life and our children's lives seemed to stand still, the seemingly outrageous fact remained that the world itself went on! Those of you who have been "secondary sufferers" may know this feeling, this experience; you have had to come to terms with the reality that while you sat there with your loved one in the early morning awaiting surgery, or awaiting treatment, or awaiting a diagnosis, or even at a bedside awaiting death, people all over Rhode Island were beginning the day concerned about the temperature, weak coffee, bad hair, or burnt toast. Like Emily, you want to shake people and say, "Realize life while you live it! Life is so very fragile and brief...take time to appreciate people and things that matter!" No, the world does not stop when our world stops, which is really not all bad. For me that was as helpful as it is was difficult. The work, the structure, the caring for the kids, all the routine, all the things that fill life helped make the unbearable more bearable. Thank God for the common tasks that demanded and continue to demand both time and effort; the things that fill life are necessary. However, we mustn't let them distract us from realizing life as we live it! Death or near-death crises powerfully underline the preciousness of life and especially of life's relationships. Oh, why does it so often take catastrophe to connect us with each other, to get us to appreciate the people in our lives, to get us to realize what things are important and what things really don't matter, to live life while we are living it? How much we take for granted! How much we fail to appreciate in those near and dear to us! How much we miss of life! That is what Jesus was literally dying to tell us. He has come that we might have life while living it, and have it to the full.

There are basically four ways to live life, three of which cause us to miss life in the midst of living it. Look at the word "LIFE." Some people take the letter "I" in life and exaggerate it. They emphasize the "I" in the middle. "Me, me, me. My needs, my desires, my wants, my feelings, my self-gratification, my satisfaction are all important. What's in it for ME? It has to be the way I want it to be, it has to be my way or no way." Nothing else matters in life except for how it relates to me. Many people live this "l I f e"; incidentally, it's a way of life that sucks the life out of others around them. Do you know people like that? If we're honest, some of us realize we live life like that at times as well. Are you missing life, are you missing the people and events in your life, because you are so consumed with yourself and your needs? The second way people live life is by elevating the I and the F out of life. Life is lived with an almost constant litany of "if only:" "If only I had a different job. If only I had a different spouse. If only I made five or ten thousand dollars more a year. If only I hadn't invested so much in NASDAQ stocks. If only I had done this, if only I had done that, then life would be better...and on and on it goes. Life for these people is nothing more than a constant, joyless litany of regret and excuses. Are you missing life because you are in a constant state of pining for what you don't have, never being content with the way things are, always making excuses for not living? The third way people live life is by elevating the L, the I and the E out of life. They live a lie. There's a secret in their life or their home they are forever trying to cover. They go through life wearing a mask, they're living a lie, they are not honest with others, they are often not honest with themselves, and they are not honest with God. Huge amounts of emotional and mental energy and attention goes into holding the "mask" in place. A word coined in the Greek drama world of 2,500 years ago was hypocrites, it meant one who assumed a role in a drama and came from a root word meaning "pretender." The word gradually became the standard label for one who assumes virtue or piety like an actor who hides his true self in a stage role. Do you know anyone who's living a lie, or is there anyone here who is living a lie? Are you missing life due to the sheer energy and attention you have to keep pouring into keeping the mask in place?

How do you live life? The "I", the "I" "F", the "L" "I" "E"...? These are all ways that cause us to miss life while we are living it. These are all ways we may live lives that are filled full...full of ourselves, full of excuses, full of pretenses...but they are not ways to live lives that are full filled. The fourth way to live is to live the life to which Jesus calls us. It is life that takes the "F" and elevates that; it is life with Faith at its center. As that "F" is elevated, as your faith in Christ grows, matures and is lifted up, as you "seek first the kingdom of God", you will find that all of LIFE will be elevated in return, life becomes fulfilled. "I have come that you might have life, and have it in all its fullness."

As the people were cheering in excitement and adulation that first Palm Sunday, Luke 19:42 tells us that Jesus, surrounded by the fanfare, wept. Why? He wept because the people did not understand the visitation of their God, they did not understand the liberation and the life He was coming to bring. The kingdom He was bringing was the kingdom of God, the liberation He was bringing was the liberation to live life in all its fullness, now and forever. He wasn't coming to Jerusalem to bring l I f e; to give us everything we want and think we need. Nor was He coming to remove all the challenges, enemies, obstacles, hurts and fears we encounter so we could live unencumbered, to take care of all the "if only's" in our lives. Nor was He coming to make it any easier for us to go on living a life of lies and cover-up, to help us "keep up appearances." He was coming to Jerusalem to go to the cross, because He was coming to Jerusalem on a mission from a loving Father, a Father infinitely more loving and gracious and generous than Mr. Rozelle, a Father who wants to procure for His children the gift of LIFE....life abundant and eternal and full. Oh, the people that first Palm Sunday understood some things; they used the right language that was to be used for the prophesied Messiah...He was the Messiah, He was coming to bring the kingdom of God, but they did not understand. Five days later many who were shouting "Hosanna!" were screaming "Crucify him!" What provoked such a change in attitude? Very possibly the people were bitterly disappointed, because their very limited expectations were not fulfilled. Very possibly their expectations grew out of the way they misspelled L I F E.

In the years since that Palm Sunday, there have been many people who were like that crowd in Jerusalem: people who were very enthusiastic about Jesus Christ, but not understanding fully what kind of life Jesus Christ was literally dying to give them. Have you ever been disappointed in Jesus Christ, because your expectations were not fulfilled? Might it be because you have misspelled L I F E all these years? Put the emphasis on that middle F...put your hope, your faith and your love fully in this King of Kings...and watch as He elevates all of life into something grand and fulfilling. He has indeed come that we might have life, and have it in all its fullness.