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Lucy & Linus have a chicken wishbone. They are going to pull it to make a wish. As Lucy explains to Linus how the wishbone works, Linus asks, "Do I have to say the wish out loud?"
Lucy says, "Of course, if you don't say it out loud it won't come true." Then she makes her wish first. She says, "I wish for 4 new sweaters, a new bike, a new pair of skates, a new dress & $100."
Linus goes next. "I wish for a long life for all of my friends," he says. "I wish for world peace, I wish for great advancements in medical research."
At this, Lucy takes the wishbone and throws it away. "Linus," she says, "that's the trouble with you, you're always spoiling everything."
It does spoil things, does it not, when into our self -centered, materialistic, divided world comes one who is able to forget his or her own needs & look to the needs of us all? Such a Man has come & He came with a mission.
Did you know that at the turn of the century, folks were calling this century the Christian Century? They believed that by the final years of this millennium people would learn to live in unity & harmony together. Regretfully, they were wrong. With less than 9 years remaining until the year 2000, there are a multitude of people who still hate each other.
WE LIVE IN A DIVIDED WORLD. Nations are divided. We see it in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland & South Africa, within the Soviet Union. All over the world nations not only are striving against one another, but they are torn by strife within. It is a problem as old as humanity itself.
I was interested to read somewhere about the origin of the custom of handshaking. In ancient times, men always carried daggers. When a traveler met a man he didn't recognize, he automatically reached for his weapon, as did the stranger. The 2 would then circle each other until they knew what the situation called for.
If the stranger was not a threat, both men would sheath their daggers. Then they would extend their right hands, their weapon hands, as a token of goodwill. This explains why women never developed the custom of handshaking. They did not carry weapons.
It appears to me that in today's world we are still circling each other as we always have, still checking each other out. The nations of the world are not ready to shake hands. They are divided.
And communities are divided. America's melting pot has never quite realized it potential. We are not a solitary family but an amalgamation of peoples & traditions & even languages. Will we ever transcend our various ethnic, cultural & racial boundaries & truly become one people? I don't know. If we do, it will be because men & women of good will are determined to have it so. Let me tell you about one such man--former baseball great, Joe Gordon.
In 1947, Gordon was in his prime with the Cleveland Indians. That same year, a young black athlete named Larry Doby came to play for Cleveland. Doby was the first black rookie to join an American League team.
Doby was tense & nervous when he stepped up for his first time at bat. He swung at 3 pitches & missed each of them--by at least a foot. He walked back to the dugout with his head down. He walked past all the other players on the bench & slouched in the corner alone with his head in his hands.
Joe Gordon, a power hitter, was the next man up. The opposing pitcher that day was one that Gordon usually blasted out of the park. This time, however, Joe Gordon went up to the plate & missed 3 pitches in a row--each of them by at least 2 feet. He returned to the dugout, walked past all the other players on the bench, sat down in the corner next to Larry Doby & put his head in his hands.
No one ever asked Joe Gordon if he struck out deliberately. As long as they played together after that, however, every time Larry Doby went out on the field, he first picked up Joe Gordon's glove & tossed it to him. Doby went on to become one of the strongest hitters in major league history.
I don't know anything about Joe Gordon's religious commitment. I would like to think he did what he did because Jesus had touched his heart. I do know that as we finish this century America is still struggling with ethnic, racial, & cultural diversity. Communities are divided.
Even churches are divided. We are still fighting battles that should have been over long ago--battles between literalists & liberals, evangelicals & social activists, traditionalists & modernists.
A LEADERSHIP magazine cartoon a few months ago pictured a pastor sitting with 2 obviously exasperated parishioners at a table in his office. The caption read like this: "With our current hard feelings," the pastor was saying, "would anyone object to my praying with my eyes open?" How sad. How very sad to see churches divided.
And, of course, families are divided. Once a young man had all kinds of promise to be successful as an actor. But every time he was offered a great part, he would blow it. When time came to sign contracts, he would become upset about the way the producer or his agent handled the negotiations. Or he would blow up about some other insignificant detail. Eventually, the whole opportunity would fizzle.
It was obvious he was sabotaging his own career. A therapist was brought in. The therapist told him, "Imagine that you're in your hometown. There is the theatre, there is the marquee, there is your name in lights." At that point this young man jumped out of his chair. His face was red with anger & hatred. "No! No!" he shouted. "They don't deserve it! They don't deserve to see me as a success!"
The therapist now knew that there was a reason the young man was sabotaging his own success. He was angry at his mother & father. Something so terrible had happened somewhere in his growing up that he wanted to fail in order to punish them.
Nations are divided. Communities are divided. Churches are divided. Families are divided. Into such a world came our Lord, Jesus Christ. Why did he come? The apostle Paul tells us in our Scripture for the day. He came to tear down walls. Paul writes, "For he is our peace, who made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." Is there a dividing wall of hostility in your life? How about in your family? In your community? How about in your heart?
Robert Frost's words haunt us: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down."
Jesus saw the walls of his day & he wanted them down. Walls between Jews & Samaritans. Walls between the super-righteous & sinners. Walls between fallen humanity & his Father. And Jesus gave his life to tear them every one down.
When former senator & vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, died several years ago there was a memorial service in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Washington's elite gathered to say good-bye to their much-beloved friend. Richard Nixon was there that day. He sat off by himself, as if he were quarantined.
Howard Baker, remembering that day, said, "Nobody would talk to him. Everybody was afraid of him." The awkward ostracizing of the former president ended only when President Jimmy Carter walked over to Mr. Nixon, shook his hand, & welcomed him back to Washington. NEWSWEEK magazine concluded that this simple act of humanity & compassion changed Nixon's future. "If there was a turning point in Nixon's long ordeal in the wilderness, that was it."
There comes a time when someone must take that walk of compassion, someone must scale that wall of hostility, someone must go out on that limb of love. Jesus did.
There is no more graphic illustration of that truth than the event that occurred the moment he died. What does Luke tell us happened when Christ breathed his last? "It was now about the sixth hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sunlight failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two." (23:44-45)
The curtain that separated the believer from the holy of holies was torn in two. The final wall separating humanity from its Creator was ripped apart. That is what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about. That is what our faith is all about. He tears down walls. Especially the walls we build around our own hearts.
Judson Swihart once put it like this: "Some people are like medieval castles. Their high walls keep them safe from being hurt. They protect themselves emotionally by permitting no exchange of feelings with others. No one can enter. They are secure from attack. However, inspection of the occupant finds him or her lonely, rattling around his castle alone. The castle dweller is a self-made prisoner. He or she needs to feel loved by someone, but the walls are so high that it is difficult to reach out or for anyone else to reach in."
Perhaps you know what it is to live behind such walls. The good news is that Christ has come to destroy all the walls that separate us from one another and from God no matter where or what those walls may be.
Two years ago in Israel the family of a Jewish man with a fatal heart disease were desperate for a donor for a heart transplant. They pleaded with the family of a brain-dead Arab man, shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, to donate the dying Palestinian's heart for the transplant. The Palestinian's family refused. Both men died.
A year later, another Arab & another Jew lay dying in hospital wards. This time the brain-dead man was an Israeli soldier shot by Arabs in an ambush in the Gaza strip. The man who needed the heart was a Palestinian.
The Israeli family, unaware of the identity of the recipient gave consent, & the transplant took place in a Jerusalem hospital.
When the news broke there was a storm of protest.
Israelis were in a rage that the heart of a solider of theirs should be in the body of a Palestinian. Ironically, the man who actually received the heart went into hiding to escape Arab rage. The widow of the dead Israeli soldier, however, knew the Shema. She knew also the words of Jesus. She was satisfied. She said, "If a person can be saved, I feel it is a blessing."
It is a blessing. One more wall came tumbling down. The western world cheered a couple years back to see the despised Berlin Wall come tumbling down. But there are other walls still to go. Can I give you an axe? A hammer? A bull-dozer?
Or perhaps you are one of those who has built a wall around your own heart. If Christ has never broken thru that wall, why not let him today?
