“Hang in There!”

Isaiah 50:4-9a

April 13, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming, Senior Pastor

I saw it again the other afternoon while I was shopping in one of my favorite Christian book stores. I was there to buy a book that I had had my eye on for some time. Since it was late in the day, I decided that I would finish out the day by buying the book and browsing in this bookstore. What I saw the other day was past where the books are kept, beyond where the inspirational cards call home, past where the compact discs and sheet music live, near the back of the store. There, hanging on a wall, are pieces of framed artwork. Just beyond them are the posters, placed in racks, so that you can flip through them. I had browsed through the books and listened to a compact disc or two. For some reason, the posters kept calling out to me and so I went over to where they were and started flipping through them. I loved the first one that I came to. In fact, I once owned the first one that I came to, but it was lost in an early move in my ministerial life. On it was a cute kitten who could not have been more than a few days old. She is fast asleep on a thick Bible. Behind her, floating in a simple bowl, is a goldfish. Under the two pictures are the words: He Will Quiet You With His Love. I smiled when I came to that poster. I flipped through a few more posters. After a few flips, I came to the poster that you have probably seen. It is the one of a cute kitten. It just occurred to me, there sure are a lot of kittens in inspirational posters. Anyway, it was the one of the cute kitten who is hanging on for dear life. Her claws are dug in. Her feet are dangling in mid-air. She is chin-upping somewhere above the ground. You cannot see beyond her feet. The look on her face is one of sheer panic. Her eyes are as big as saucers and the advice under the picture is this: Hang In There.

The other afternoon, when I saw the poster again, I laughed out loud. Then I left the posters and started browsing at the artwork, just to the left of it. I was there for several minutes and I saw six or seven people do what I had done, flip through the posters. All of them, everyone of them, when they came to the kitten dangling in mid-air chuckled and then laughed out loud. Susie and I are dog people. We have two dachshunds. We love Winnie and Macie most days. Cats are not our favorite animals in the world, but we do not hate cats. I am allergic to cats and so that is the reason that I stay away from them. But, still, I don’t hate cats. So when I saw people flipping through the posters and laughing when they saw the kitten, I could not help but to think: “Surely all of these people don’t hate cats this much that they get some kind of satisfaction out of seeing them suffer like that. Then it occurred to me that maybe they smiled and perhaps they laughed for the same reason that I did when I saw the poster. Maybe they were relieved that, at least this time, they were not the ones who had to Hang In There. It is easier, I suppose, to laugh and smile when the one who is having to hang in there isn’t you.

Seeing the kitten the other afternoon reminded me of one of my favorite stories. It is the one about the six year old boy who went to school and soon discovered that his stomach ached. He told his teacher about it and she sent him to see the school’s nurse. He walked down the hallway to her office and waited his turn in line with the two or three other children who were there to see her. While he was doing that, his class went out to the school’s playground for their recess time. When they returned to the classroom, they found the boy standing beside this desk. His shirt was pulled up to just below his chest and with every stomach that he had, he was pushing his stomach out. His teacher saw him. She did not want to embarrass him, so she quietly went over to him and asked him what he was doing. This is what he said, “I went to see the school nurse like you told me. I told her about my stomach ache.” His teacher nodded while she listened. He continued, “She told me that if I’d just stick it out until noon, I’d probably be all right, so that’s what I’m doing!”

You will know this. Hanging in there and sticking it out until noon are the same kind of behaviors. Both of them seem to say to us that if we will wait long enough, it we can just be patient. If we can endure something for a little while, then, in the end, everything will work out and will be fine. We just seem to dangle our way through life a lot of the time, don’t we? In the case of the kitten, maybe we can assume that she will land on her feet, that what awaits her is a soft, green, lawn. Otherwise the advice, ‘Hang in There!’ wouldn’t make much sense, now would it? Sometimes hanging in there is all that is needed. You know how it happens. The hard week gives way to the weekend. The challenging semester gives way to the summer. The hard relationship gives way to someone else. And sometimes, something very hard in our lives, somehow gets better. I will confess this to you, I do not like hanging in there. I do not like sticking it out until noon. When things get hard in my life, I want them to better instantly. Perhaps you operate that way, too.

There is a great line in a wonderful story about the time that a mother went to speak to President Abraham Lincoln on behalf of her son. Actually she went to plead for his life. He had been tried and convicted of treason. His mother went and pleaded like only a mother can do and the president agreed to pardon him. But it is reported that the President said, “Still, ma’am, I’d like to give your son just a little bit of hanging!” We know that feeling, don’t we friends?

Our scripture lesson for this morning paints a picture using words of a man who knows what a little bit of hanging feels like. The prophet Isaiah paints this scene in the fiftieth chapter of his prophesy; words that are in the middle of his counsel to an exiled and mournful Israel. Isaiah says that the Lord has given him the tongue of a teacher so that he will be able to sustain the weary with a word. I heard Emmanuel Cleaver, a great preacher from Kansas City, tell of a time in his ministry when things were particularly hard. He was tired and worn out. One day he went to get his haircut. He knew his barber and his barber knew him. Sometimes getting your hair cut makes you feel a whole lot better, have you discovered that? Emmanuel was sitting in the chair, getting his hair cut. His head was down, but the barber needed for it to be up, and so he simply said, “Keep your head up, preacher.” His barber said more than he knew. There are not many words like the word weary. I have a thesaurus on my computer that I use from time to time so that I won’t say the same word over and over again. The other morning, I was working on our sermon. I opened the thesaurus and typed in the word weary and asked it to offer some alternatives. Here are the words that appeared on the screen: Drained. Exhausted. Fatigued. Worn. Spent. Worn out. But the word that it suggested that jumped off the screen was this one: Dis-spirited. As if to take the spirit from a person. No, there are not many words like the word weary and there also are not many feelings like it. But you already know that. It is the kind of feeling that eight hours of sleep won’t help. It is having to handle things and not knowing where you are going to get the strength to do that. For some reason, I find strength in knowing that at least once in his ministry, Jesus Christ, himself, felt that way. It’s his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that tips us off. There Jesus prays, “Now my soul is troubled...” This is the same Lord who once said, “Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” Sustaining the weary with a word. This is important stuff, friends.

There is more. There is much more. Next the prophet says that he is awakened every morning to the sound of God’s voice in his ear. Can I ask you, is that how you wake up? Most mornings, I wake up to the sound of a nearly two year old yelling out, “Mama. Mama.” When it happens, I turn to my wife and say, “Annie Grace is calling you.” Then I try to roll over and go back to sleep, but that never works! By the way, it is not a terrible way to wake up. The prophet says that he wakes up to the sound of God’s voice in his ear. How does the hymn put this: Morning by morning new mercies I see. All that I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.” Maybe it was God’s whisper that helped the Israelite people make it through their weary days.

The prophet tells us that he was not rebellious. He offers himself to the angry abuse of others in three different ways. First, he offers his back to those who struck him. You will know this, there is not a lot that you can do when your back is turned. Behind your back is where people talk about you. You cannot defend yourselves when your back is turned. It is a defenseless position. Next the prophet says that he gave his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard. Now his back is not turned. It seems as if the suffering servant is now asking for it. Or, in the words of Paul, perhaps he is trying to overcome evil with good. I have never had a beard. I was once told that preachers with beards are suspect, so I have never grown one. I suspect that pulling out the hairs of a beard are painful. My sister and I, when we were younger, fought, and our first line of defense was the pulling of the hair on our heads. It was painful. It must have been painful for the suffering servant. Then there is the third way that the abuse was given, perhaps the most humiliating of the three. This prophet tells us that he did not even turn his head when the insults were hurled and when others spit in his face. Then there is a turn in this passage. Did you notice it? Did you see it? Most of the prophesies make turns like this one. It’s a turn toward good news. Isaiah says, “He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me!”

Compare that scene and that prophet to another one, the one who entered the city of Jerusalem in our first lesson for this morning. Jesus, who entered the city on a donkey and in a parade like atmosphere is not all that different from the servant that Isaiah described. Compare the scene Isaiah described to the scene we know happened at a place called Calvary, on a hill whose name is Golgotha. Isaiah’s words, “....therefore I have set my face like flint....” sound a lot to me like the ones that Jesus said when he took his first steps toward Jerusalem. Luke 9:51 record the words, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

In the grand scheme of things, today is the first day in the last week of Jesus’ life. On Friday, palm branches won’t be waving. No one will shout, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Instead, there will be a cross and Jesus on it. There won’t be cheers, but there will be taunts. One of the criminals, crucified beside Jesus will call out, “If you are the Son of God, save yourself and us...” Let’s ask this, this morning, church. What is Jesus doing up there, on the cross? I think that I know. He is hanging in there, so that we won’t have to Hang In There. You will probably remember this. We believe that Jesus had the power to call upon the

angels, but he does not do that. He stays on the cross. Why would he do that? I think that I know. I think that he stays on the cross because of his love for us.

Maybe you have heard the story of the young man who was seeking answers for his life. He liked his new, young pastor and so he went to see him one day. His first question was a powerful one. He asked, “What is the greatest thing that you know about God.” The preacher had to think for only a second or two, and then he said, “The greatest thing that I know about God is that He loves me. But I know this, too, God loves you.” I know that this will sound a bit simplistic, but if you have not discovered this, I am a simple person. I hardly ever use lofty words in sermons. I know that there is a lot to consider this week, the last week of Jesus’ life. I know that there are big questions to ask and consider. I know that there are powerful scripture lessons to read and to think about. But here is what I want you to think about this week, every morning, I want you to think about this: this is a week about love, not just pain. Jesus loved us so much that he stayed on the cross. He died so that we could live. He did not want us to live as those who are anxious and afraid. Jesus stayed on the cross so that we could know life different from that. He stayed there so strife would not have to be a part of our lives. Love, the cross, and abundant living, those are the things that I would like for you to think about this week. Let us pray.

(Special thanks is due to Homiletics magazine for the idea for this sermon. To Rev. James W. Moore for the story about the child who stuck it out until noon. To Max Lucado for the story about the mother who went to see President Lincoln. And to Jesus who gave us all the chance to have abundant lives).