Actor Martin Sheen is known for his deep religious and social convictions. Some of you will remember him best for his role as President Bartlett in the television show “The West Wing.”
Sheen shared with motivational speaker Tony Robbins an interesting story about something that happened to him while he was making the movie Apocalypse Now.
The cast had been filming under a grueling schedule deep in the jungles of the Philippines. After a restless night, Sheen woke up the next morning and realized he was suffering a massive heart attack. Portions of his body were numb and paralyzed. He fell to the ground and, through nothing but sheer will power, crawled to the door and managed to get help.
Through the efforts of the film crew, doctors, and even a stunt pilot, he was flown to a hospital for emergency care. His wife Janet rushed to his side. He was becoming weaker with each moment. Janet refused to accept the graveness of his condition she knew that Martin needed strength so she smiled brightly at him and said, “It’s just a movie, babe! It’s only a movie.”
Sheen told Robbins that at that moment, he knew he was going to make it. He couldn’t laugh, but he began to smile, and with the smile, he began to heal. After all, in movies, people don’t really die, do they? (1) For an actor, what could you say that would bring more comfort than that? “It’s just a movie, babe! It’s only a movie.”
There are times we wish life was only a movie, don’t we? Things would be so much easier. When you’re young, you want a fast forward button. Fast forward to Christmas, fast forward to getting your driver’s license, fast forward to getting out from under your parents’ strict rules.
As an adult, when times are good, you would like a pause button. As the disciples suggested to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, wouldn’t it be nice to build three booths and just remain where we are? Why can’t our children just remain adorable infants? Why can’t our marriage remain forever like those early years of passion and discovery? If we just had a pause button... Some of us would like a rewind button and, perhaps, a delete button. If we could just go back and undo some of the things we’ve said and some of the things we’ve done.
And then some of us, in the later years of life, would like to hit a button that would simply slow down the film. Life is getting away from us so fast.
And then there are those times of crisis, when we would like to pretend it is not really happening at all. Wouldn’t it be great if we could say, “It’s only a movie, babe. It’s only a movie. In a little while we’ll be able to walk out of the theater and things will be all right.” But life isn’t a movie. It’s real. And sometimes life hurts. Where then do we turn for encouragement?
I believe there is no better place to turn than our lesson for the day from John’s Gospel where Christ says to us, “Because I live, you also will live.”
That’s it! That’s the heart of Christian faith. Christ is alive and because he is alive, we can live lives that overcome every obstacle.
Some of you are familiar with the Gospel song written many years ago by Bill and Gloria Gaither. The refrain goes, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, All fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives.” The story behind that song is inspiring.
In the late 1960s, while expecting their third child, the Gaithers were going through a traumatic time. Their firstborn child, Suzanne, was four, and her sister Amy was three months old. The timing for another baby wasn’t ideal. On top of that, Bill was recovering from a bout with mononucleosis.
The breakup of the marriage of Bill’s sister, Mary Ann, had left his family devastated. What’s more, a close friend had accused Bill and Gloria of using their ministry just to make a few bucks. All this plunged Bill into a deep depression.
Gloria remembers this also as a time of fear and sadness in society. This was the time of the “God is dead” movement. Drug abuse and racial tension were increasing. The thought of bringing another child into such a world was taking its toll.
But after a simple prayer by one of Bill’s close friends the strength of the Holy Spirit seemed to come to their aid. Christ’s resurrection, in all its power, was reaffirmed in their hearts. They were assured that the future, left in God’s hands, would be just fine.
In July 1970 a healthy baby, Benjamin, was born. Inspired by the miracle of their son’s birth, “Because He Lives” poured out of the Gaithers’ grateful hearts. The song clearly affirms the hope believers have in Christ. We can face tomorrow, with all its uncertainty, as we realize that God holds the future and makes life worth living. (2)
“Because I live, you also will live . . .” said Christ to his disciples. What does that say to you and me about our lives?
Christ’s words remind us, first of all, that we are loved. Listen, now, to the rest of this passage:
“Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Christ is saying to us that we are loved.
In a world as immense as ours and as complicated, it is easy to think of ourselves as having no value. Cogs in a machine, numbers in a computer, faceless, nameless, unnoticed by the universe at large. No wonder we feel powerless.
Sometime back there was a speech by Tom Kalinske, Chairman of LeapFrog, the maker of creative educational games for children. Kalinske began with a story, a true story which originates from a friend of his who was hired to shoot a documentary film about computers and education.
The film was about an experiment in a Southern California junior high school, a test of a new computer system which was programmed with learning games that reinforced the fundamentals of math and reading and writing. This particular school was chosen in order to make the computer’s job as tough as possible because year after year, its students scored in the lowest statewide percentiles in every subject.
The experiment took place ten years ago, when computers were still pretty exotic contraptions to find in a public school. Naturally, the principal wanted to minimize the risk that the computers would be damaged in any way. And so he made a decision to exclude the special education class from the experiment.
You see, the special ed kids were always a bit out of control.
That would have been the end of the story if it weren’t for a very dedicated special ed teacher. When she heard that her kids were going to sit on the sidelines while everyone else got time on the computers, she made such a fuss that the principal gave in.
And so, the special ed kids got their four hours a week at the computers. And when, in just one semester, some of these kids learned more than in the preceding ten years, the administration realized that something very special and very unexpected had happened.
There was a Hispanic girl who was placed in special ed because she just never learned to read. And she was terribly intimidated in class, so she never was able to communicate that she simply didn’t get the basic phonic concepts. But the computer didn’t intimidate her, and in one semester, she’d begun to read at her proper grade level.
The most touching story, however, was a kid named Raymond, who had every problem in the book. A dysfunctional home, acute shyness, bad eyesight and zero academic performance. But in the one semester he had with the computer, Raymond caught up seven years of math. They got him in front of the camera for an interview and asked how it was that he blossomed so magnificently.
“Well,” he replied, “you see, all the kids here call me retard. The computer calls me Raymond.” (3)
Did you get that? “The kids . . . call me retard. The computer calls me Raymond.” What in the world could be more de-motivating, more dispiriting, more discouraging than to think that nobody believes in you? How could you ever believe in yourself?
Christ reminds us that Somebody in this universe not only notices us, but loves us and believes in us. What many people need to know is not only that they can believe in God, but God believes in them. We’re not merely a nameless, faceless blob of protoplasm taking up space in the universe. The God of all the universe sees us, notices us, listens to us, believes in us.
Not only does Christ love us, Christ is always with us. “I am in my Father, says Christ to us, “and you are in me, and I am in you.” Did you hear that? Christ is within us. We don’t have to go to a mountaintop to find God. We don’t have to peer through the Hubble telescope. All we have to do is to listen for the Divine whisper from within ourselves.
“Find a place in your heart,” said an ancient sage named Theophan the Recluse, “and speak there with the Lord. It is the Lord’s reception room.”
Some people seem to find this room easily. Others have more difficulty.
Pastor John Ortberg tells about some friends of his who have a daughter. When she was five years old, this girl told her parents, “I know Jesus lives in my heart, because when I put my hand on it I can feel him walking around in there.” (4)
Out of the mouths of babes come words of wisdom. Christ lives within us. That’s good news because, as the writer of I John reminds us, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (4:4, KJV)
A teenager named James Dungy committed suicide a few years ago. It was a terrible blow to his father Tony, who at the time was the much-respected coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Many prayers were lifted up as the Dungy family mourned this loss. In an interview after his return to his position as head coach, Dungy thanked the Colts organization for its support, and then he said words that surprised no one who knew him. “My faith in Christ,” said Tony Dungy, “is what’s gotten me through this.” (5)
How many of you parents have asked yourselves how you could ever cope if something tragic were to happen to one of your children? Here’s how by faith in Christ. “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Christ not only loves us. Christ also lives within us and Christ will help us endure any crisis if we will trust him.
Most people believe in God. But many people have only a God “out there.” They have never opened themselves to the God who dwells within. To people with this problem, God seems somehow remote, unconcerned about their everyday cares and concerns. They have never seen God as a living presence in their lives.
A story is told of a mother who, rather than asking her children the question: “How was your day?” did something much more helpful. As she tucked her children into bed each night, she asked them this question: “Where did you meet God today?”
In answer to her question about where they met God, they would answer, one by one: “A teacher helped me; there was a homeless person in the park; I saw a tree with lots of flowers on it.” After they finished telling her where they had met God that day, she would tell them where she met God, too. (6)
What a grand exercise! We meet Christ everywhere when Christ dwells within us. We can face tomorrow because Christ loves us and Christ is with us.
But note one thing more. Christ says, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me . . .” (emphasis added).
The love we have in Christ is not a sentimental, mushy feel-good experience that says we are free to do our own thing.
Love for Christ is expressed through obeying his commands. We are soldiers in Christ’s army in the war against every form of sin and injustice. That is what gives our lives meaning and purpose.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. On that day we honor those men and women who have given their lives in service to our country. The obedience that the soldier gives to those in command often puts our obedience to Christ to shame.
In 2005, Capt. James Key, US Army Chaplain, wrote some words which were carried in USA Today. “This past year,” Capt. Key writes, “I served as chaplain for a 600 soldier logistics battalion in Baghdad . . . These soldiers had to deliver supplies along the most dangerous routes in Iraq. When bombs exploded, the reality of war forced many to do some serious soul searching . . . I am back home in the states now, a safe distance away from the death and war that challenge many servicemen and women in ways most people in our country will never fully understand. One evening, a casualty officer and I drove down the road on our way to inform a soldier’s spouse that her husband had died in Iraq. As an Army chaplain, I thought about how difficult it would be for this young mother and how empty the two children’s lives would be without their dad . . . This year, as we celebrate Memorial Day, we should pause as a nation . . . and think about the men and women who continue to fight and die in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan. It is true,” writes Capt. Key, “War is hell, freedom is expensive, death is painful and faith still matters especially to those in the foxhole.” (7)
Jesus put it like this, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus is our friend. He lay down his life for us. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow. He loves us. He dwells within us. Can we not live for him?
1. Anthony Robbins, Notes from a Friend (New York, NY: Fireside, 1995), pp. 76-77.
2. http://www.hymnlyrics.org/mostpopularhymns/because_he_lives.html.
3. Vital Speeches of the Day, November 1, 1994, p. 37.
4. God Is Closer than You Think (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005).
5. Cited by Tony Grant, http://yarpc.tripod.com/avgjoe.htm.
6. Dorothy C. Bass, http://funnysermons.com/.
7. May 26, 2006, p. 11 A, “Remember the Guys in the Foxholes.” Contributed by John Bardsley.