When You Realize ...

Sunday, March 1, 2009
1st Sunday in Lent
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn
Readings:
Genesis 9:8-17
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15



Audio sermon file: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/611B843A-9CD9-C29C-FF9E-2840D30477C4.mp3


I heard Pastor Mohn had a really good sermon to preach today. I heard it from Pastor Mohn – right before she said she wasn’t going to preach it!

A long cold took the wind out of the larynx and she pocketed that sermon. I sat disappointed in my pew. She confessed she was disappointed (too) but she figured on a pretty cool substitute. She pointed out tha the Gospel from Mark was not long-winded. The verses today are short, compact, but chock-full – Pure Hemingway.
Mark did not need many words to tell the story he had to tell … and there was a reason.

So Pastor Mohn mused …

Think about when you passed on The Best News You Ever Heard

“I’ve been accepted”
“I’m pregnant!”
“I’m NOT pregnant!!!!”
“We’re staying …”
“We’re going …”
“It’s FINALLY over!”
“It’s only just begun.”
“EUREKA!! I found it!”

These moments of realizing your best news are the in-between places Pastor Johnson referred to just last week. The bookmarks of life.

This news, by the way? How long did it take you to share it? Was it anti-climactic? Did you script it in a long arc? How long did it take to get it out … in words? Was it something you blurted out, not neat and structured, but just couldn’t contain?
Something so good “it fell out of you”? Did you rush to find somebody particular to tell? Or did you just tell a complete stranger?

If you think this last notion is a tad unbelievable, I have to interject with this short, but true tale of the weekend I asked Laurna to marry me. I asked her atop of the Pinnacles National Monument in California. En route back to our bed and breakfast, she was plotting who to tell and in what order and when. She asked me to PLEASE NOT tell anyone before we told our parents. I dutifully agreed. At breakfast the next morning, someone asked if what all we had done the day before. Laurna blurted out “He asked me to marry him!” I choked on my raspberry fru-fru tart and yogurt marmalade. So much for the best laid plans of sharing this news with family first. Not just not family, but complete strangers.

The reality of sharing really good news is it changes what comes next.

In an irrevocable way. The next becomes now – before you know it. What comes after is so interesting it changes everything. In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Harry picks the oddball moment at New Year’s Eve to let Sally know what he finally realizes he’s felt … and it changes EVERYTHING:

Sally: You can’t just walk in here and expect it to change everything. It doesn’t work that way.
Harry: Well, how does it work?
Sally: I don't know, but not this way.
Harry: How about this way? I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Sally: You see? That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you.

But, of course, we all know … she doesn’t. And what we also know is it’s quite the opposite. Sally says he can’t just say something and expect it to change everything. But then he does … and it does. As much as this is not how she dreamed of “getting the news”, she realizes also that it’s really the transformational moment for Harry. It just fell out of him. And what comes after is a beautiful, wonderful thing.

It happens to us every morning. The Good News spills over and the Kingdom of heaven comes to you, an unforgettable moment that changes everything afterward forever … for those who truly hear it. And it makes it impossible to reject it … for personal, petty or selfish reasons. It’s a “Eureka” moment.

And then … a smile … because we know it’s true.

Wow … and that was “the substitute sermon”!?

I hope I get to hear “the really good sermon” someday. I trust it IS really good. For now, I felt privileged to have heard this one ‘cause I LOVE that scene when it just falls out of Harry .. and then, through a tear strewn face, Sally smiles … ear to ear.

That’s Good News worth sharing any day!