Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
27 March 2005Col. 3.1-4/Jn. 20.1-18“Mind-set”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
This year at Incarnation, our Lenten discussion considered optimism and pessimism. We looked at the relation between these attitudes and Christian faith.
Now whether you classify yourself as an optimist or a pessimist, you would probably agree that it makes a difference whether you have a positive or negative attitude. Your attitude colors the whole way you look at the world.
Whether you look on the bright side of things or on the gloomy side determines what you see. This truth is illustrated by a story told by the preacher and author, Joel Osteen.
"One day," Reverend Osteen writes, "A little boy went out to the backyard to play with a baseball bat and ball. He said to himself, 'I'm the best hitter in all the world!' Then he threw the ball up in the air and took a swing at it — but he missed.
Without a moment's hesitation, he picked up the ball and tossed it in the air again, saying as he swung the bat, 'I'm the best hitter in all the world!' He swung and missed. Strike two.
He tossed the ball up again, concentrating more intensely, even more determined, saying, 'I'm the best hitter in all the world!' He swung the bat with all his might. Whiff! Strike three.
The little boy laid down his bat and smiled happily. 'What do you know,' he said to himself. 'I'm the best pitcher in all the world.'"
Optimists can find success in any situation, but people with a pessimistic mind-set have trouble seeing anything good. Their glass is always half-empty, never half-full.
And surely such negative attitudes aren't acceptable for Christians. We're supposed to follow the guidance of St. Paul that was given in a lesson we just heard: "If you have been raised with Christ ... set your minds on things that are above ..."
And if our minds are, indeed, "set on things that are above," then we should be able to see the wonders God has to show us.
Unfortunately, religious people can be as negative and closed-minded as anyone else. We see an example of this fearful mind-set in the Gospel lesson for today.
Peter and an unnamed disciple hear the amazing news that the stone at Jesus's tomb has been rolled away. They run to the burial site to see if the news is true. The anonymous disciple gets there first, but, the Gospel reports that he doesn't go in.
Instead, he lingers at the edge of the tomb. He waits for Peter to arrive. Peter, though, doesn't hesitate to go into the tomb and confirm that the body of Jesus had disappeared.
The disciple was in the right place at the right time. He was poised to make the discovery of a lifetime. But he held back. Why?
Perhaps it was his cautionary mind-set that made him hesitate.
Now, of course, the disciple could defend his behavior by noting that human beings can't survive without a certain amount of fearfulness. I need to read the warning labels on things I buy. If I go hiking in the wilderness, I should check the weather report before I leave.
By itself, though, a hesitant mind-set becomes negative and confining. Follow the prudent maxim, "Look before you leap," and you may save yourself some troubles. But if you never, ever take a risk, you're bound to miss things.
After looking before you leap, you'll need to take a leap of faith. And if, like the anonymous disciple, you shrink back from the challenge, you'll remain on the sidelines.
Granted, caution and hesitation can help you avoid problems. But sometimes you have to look for more than safety. You've got to take a chance and set your mind on things that are above ...
If you've had a relationship that failed for example — or if your closest friend has drifted away from you, you might naturally tend to be cautious about people. You pull back into yourself. You withdraw and watch the world go by.
Now taking a breather from serious personal relations for awhile can be prudent in such cases. But if this temporary withdrawal hardens into a mind-set, then you'll find yourself cut off from the real action of life.
And that suggests an important truth about the mind-set God wants us to have. If we follow Paul's advice and focus on things that are above, we'll find that our religious attitudes don't distract us from "the real world."
Faith, instead of keeping us from the flow of normal human events, gives us courage to accept the challenges of real life, and to meet them head on.
Going back to the Gospel story, notice that while Peter is outrun by the other disciple, he makes up for his athletic inferiority by boldly rushing into the tomb. He wants to find out what happened to his beloved leader. Somewhere in the back of Peter's mind, the Easter faith is already beginning to propel him forward, forward into a tomb that has become a sign of new life.
Peter had a track record of being impetuous, and his boldness hadn't always helped him in the past. He had tried to fight off the soldiers who arrested Christ, only to be admonished by Jesus to let the soldiers do their jobs.
Peter also claimed he would never betray Christ. Yet only a few hours after making his grand boast, Peter found himself doing exactly that.
But in the end, the mind-set of faith took hold, and Peter marched into the tomb. In the years ahead, Peter would become a strong leader of the early church.
So, too, for us, the mind-set of faith not only prepares us for life with God in Heaven, but also prepares us for life here "below."
In the story from Joel Osteen we heard earlier, the young baseball player is an example of someone who has taken Joel Osteen's advice: Osteen writes, "Get rid of the mind-set that says you can't do it; you can't be happy; you have too much to overcome."
And we may note, too, that the anonymous disciple eventually learned this lesson. To some of us who tend to be fearful and cautious, he is a kind of patron saint.
For there is a tradition that the anonymous disciple was, in fact, the "beloved disciple," known to history as "St. John," who wrote the Gospel according to St. John and founded a powerful Christian community that proclaimed the love of God.
All because the disciple overcame his hesitation, and looked death in the face. All because he came off the sidelines and decided to grasp a new mind-set — the mind-set of faith.
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.