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EASTER AND ROLLING STONES

#1 · April 7, 2004, 10:56 am

Quote from Forum Archives on April 7, 2004, 10:56 am
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
EASTER , ROLLING STONES AND REALITY MAPS

Easter Sunday

I heard about a woman who confronted her minister at the door after worship. She complained, "Why is it every time I come to church you're always singing that same hymn, `Christ the Lord Is Risen Today'?"

It's clear how often she made it to church.

I want to give you a question to think about. The question is, What map did you bring with you?

All of us are familiar with maps, but we may not associate them with Easter. Before British actor Robert Morley died, he requested that his credit cards be buried with him. After his funeral, the LONDON TIMES was filled with letters from people pondering their needs for the hereafter. One letter-writer, Heather Tanner, said she wanted a good map buried with her. "I have intense trouble finding my way in this life," she wrote, "so I am extremely worried about the next." (Ward Patterson in Eileen H. Wilmoth, 365 DEVOTIONS, (Cincinati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1993).) She needed a map.

John Alexander in his book THE WARRIOR'S EDGE talks about reality maps. A reality map is a way of looking at the world. It is a belief system.

Let me give you an example. We are told that during the time of Homer, Greek sailors never sailed out of sight of land. They hugged the coast, because their reality maps told them that any seagoing ship would be lost. According to their belief systems the sea was filled with deadly monsters. Their reality maps limited their travels.

For centuries, European sailors navigated by reality maps that stated that the world was flat. If you sailed too far, their belief systems said, you'd fall off. Christopher Columbus changed all that. It's interesting to observe though, that Columbus's own reality map told him he'd found India when he landed in the New World. That is why we call Native Americans "Indians" to this day. (Colonel John R. Alexander, Major Richard Groller & Janet Morris, THE WARRIOR'S EDGE, (New York: The Hearst Corporation, 1992). )

One more example: In 1910 an Australian nurse named Elizabeth Kenny developed an effective treatment for polio. Her treatment used heat, massage, and therapeutic exercises. At that time Australian doctors were using splints to treat polio. But as Sister Kenny demonstrated, this procedure further immobilized the muscles and killed the nerves. No matter how often Kenny proved her methods worked, however, doctors in Australia would not accept her cure. The orthopedists of Queensland even had a royal commission convened to investigate her treatment. They issued a 300-page document denouncing her, and denying her funds for new clinics and training.

Sister Kenny eventually had to leave Australia and take her cure to the rest of the world, where it was gratefully accepted. Her theories revolutionized the treatment of polio in the U.S. While today the Salk and Sabin vaccines are available to prevent polio, those who become afflicted are still treated with Kenny's methods. (SALES UPBEAT, April 30, 1992, pp. 12-14. ) The reality maps of the Australian doctors prevented them from seeing the truth.

"The wrong reality map can kill you," says John Alexander, "because your reality map sets your expectations. The right reality map can free you, vindicate you, or make you a hero. For individuals, nations, and cultures, all empowered by belief systems, reality maps are often the place where history is made and fates decided."

What is your reality map? What is your belief system? I'm not asking you to recite a catechism. I'm asking you to probe those beliefs that really guide your life.

TEXT John 20:1-18; Luke 23:55 - 24:11

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN OUR REALITY MAPS SAID THAT LIFE ENDED AT THE GRAVE.

The great actress Sarah Bernhardt kept a coffin at the foot of her bed so she could see it without effort on waking. It never left her presence even during her travels. She explained, "This is to remind me that my body will soon be dust and that my glory alone will live forever." Sarah Bernhardt's reality map told her that life ends at the grave. She wanted a coffin to remind her of the urgency of her work. And why shouldn't she? Her reality map told her there was no legitimate hope of life after death. She might as well make the best of this world, because it is the only world there is.

Have you heard of a group called People Forever International? According to the ARIZONA DAILY STAR this organization has adherents in 16 countries. PFI members think they will live forever--that they can cheat death. The group began in 1960 when co-founder Charles Brown experienced with what he calls his "cellular awakening" while mediating. "We are a species that has the ability to perpetually renew itself," Brown says. His idea is that by tapping into the intelligence of our cells we can prolong life indefinitely. However, Brown offers no guarantees of immortality, since, he says, rejuvenation is an individual process. That's good. At least three members of his group have died. (NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL REGLIGION REPORT, October 3, 1994, p. 5.6 )

Who could blame them for grasping at straws, though? If your reality map tells you that life ends at the grave, wouldn't it be natural to try to extend life as long as possible? No wonder people yearn for some method by which they can cheat death. Their reality maps tell them it's the end of the line.

THIS WAS THE REALITY MAP THAT THE FRIENDS OF JESUS WERE OPERATING UNDER THAT FIRST EASTER.

Jesus had told them different ) Matthew 17:22

And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of man is about to be delivered up into [the] hands of men, and they shall kill him; and the third day he shall be raised up.

But they had not understood what he was saying. In their own finite human mind they COULD not understand it !

And it is for that reason that on Easter sunday morning the picture we get from the New Testament is of a group of people who were totally demoralized. As far as they were concerned, their dreams were futile. Their master was dead. There was nothing left for them to do but to go back to their nets, back to their tax tables, back to their kitchens, and try to forget.

It was all an illusion--following this Galilean.

He spoke of life abundant, but now he was dead.

He promised a new kingdom, but kings don't die on a cross like a common criminal.

He spoke of God as his Father, but when he needed God most, God disappeared. How foolish they had been to give up their dreams to immerse themselves in his dream. He was dead and with him, everything he ever stood for. That's how Jesus' friends felt that first Easter morning. It was over. Finished.

But that was before they found the stone rolled away.

It takes your breath away to think of it, doesn't it? The stone was rolled away and their reality maps were forever shattered. The accounts of that first Easter morning are a little jumbled. Each of the Gospel writers gives a different perspective. It's not surprising. After all, what we have is not a finely-honed script, but eyewitness accounts. Such accounts are usually jumbled.

We know that Mary Magdalene was the first to the tomb. All the accounts agree on that. And they all agree as to what she found. The heavy stone had been rolled away. The grave was empty. He was alive. Can you imagine the impact this event had on the lives of Jesus' followers? Never again would they think of death in the same way. Once a reality map has been shattered, it can never be put back together. When a stone is rolled away, the world can never again be the way it was.

At one time people thought the world was flat. Columbus sailed his boats and a stone was rolled away. The world was forever changed.

At one time scientists and theologians believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Then Galileo rolled away a stone. Never again would humanity's perspective on the universe be the same.

At one time people attributed illnesses to all kinds of strange influences. Then Louis Pasteur did his research on bacteria, and a stone was rolled away. Never again could we go back to earlier ways of treating illness.

Remember the four-minute mile barrier? No one, the experts said, would ever be able to run the mile in less than four minutes. Then in 1954 a medical student by the name of Roger Bannister did the impossible. He broke the barrier. Today every world-class runner can run the mile in less than four minutes. A stone had been rolled away. Once a stone has been rolled away, nothing can ever again be the same.

Once death was all there was at the end of life, but the stone was rolled away !

THIS, OF COURSE, IS THE GOOD NEWS OF EASTER.

Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the tomb and the stone had been rolled away. Death had been conquered. Jesus' teachings had been validated. Nothing again would ever be the same. The lives of those who followed Jesus would now have extraordinary meaning and purpose and energy because the stone had been rolled away.

Roger Kruger, a pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas tells of a farmer he knows who once had the opportunity to go fishing on the Gulf of Mexico. This farmer had never been out on a body of water any bigger than a small lake where he sometimes fished, so he was looking forward to this experience. The fishing turned out to be lousy. They caught nothing. Still, he had a great time. He was especially enthralled by the sunrise and the sunset over the Gulf. Never before had he been able to see the entire horizon as the sun came up and the sun went down. The rapidly changing colors were awe-inspiring. Since he had his camera along, he took many pictures.

Back home, he was eager to get the film developed. When at last the pictures came, however, he made a discovery. He could no longer tell which of them were of the sunrise and which were of the sunset. They all looked the same.

Thanks to the empty tomb death is like that for the believer. To many it appears to be an end: the end of a life, the end of a relationship, a time of great sadness, a sunset, if you will. But for those who believe in Christ it is a sunrise--a beginning, the beginning of life with God.

Black poet James Weldon Johnson wrote of Sister Caroline in "Go Down, Death":

"She saw what we couldn't see/

She saw Old Death/

Coming like a falling star/

But Death didn't frighten Sister Caroline/

He looked to her like a welcome friend."

Easter Sunday changes our reality maps concerning death and the meaning of life. An enemy becomes a welcome friend. The stone has been rolled away.

Jesus is alive.... he walks with us, he talks with us. He is there whenever we need him. His promise was I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will be with you always. Death did not keep him from keeping his promises. He is alive. And because He lives we will live also ! Hallelujah !

http://folsom.sk.ca/easter4.htm

...

.
  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Ultimate Bible Quiz Site"  folsom.sk.ca/k4j/BQuiz/Quiz.html  *************************************                                                                              --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]  

Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

EASTER , ROLLING STONES AND REALITY MAPS

Easter Sunday

I heard about a woman who confronted her minister at the door after worship. She complained, "Why is it every time I come to church you're always singing that same hymn, `Christ the Lord Is Risen Today'?"

It's clear how often she made it to church.

I want to give you a question to think about. The question is, What map did you bring with you?

All of us are familiar with maps, but we may not associate them with Easter. Before British actor Robert Morley died, he requested that his credit cards be buried with him. After his funeral, the LONDON TIMES was filled with letters from people pondering their needs for the hereafter. One letter-writer, Heather Tanner, said she wanted a good map buried with her. "I have intense trouble finding my way in this life," she wrote, "so I am extremely worried about the next." (Ward Patterson in Eileen H. Wilmoth, 365 DEVOTIONS, (Cincinati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1993).) She needed a map.

John Alexander in his book THE WARRIOR'S EDGE talks about reality maps. A reality map is a way of looking at the world. It is a belief system.

Let me give you an example. We are told that during the time of Homer, Greek sailors never sailed out of sight of land. They hugged the coast, because their reality maps told them that any seagoing ship would be lost. According to their belief systems the sea was filled with deadly monsters. Their reality maps limited their travels.

For centuries, European sailors navigated by reality maps that stated that the world was flat. If you sailed too far, their belief systems said, you'd fall off. Christopher Columbus changed all that. It's interesting to observe though, that Columbus's own reality map told him he'd found India when he landed in the New World. That is why we call Native Americans "Indians" to this day. (Colonel John R. Alexander, Major Richard Groller & Janet Morris, THE WARRIOR'S EDGE, (New York: The Hearst Corporation, 1992). )

One more example: In 1910 an Australian nurse named Elizabeth Kenny developed an effective treatment for polio. Her treatment used heat, massage, and therapeutic exercises. At that time Australian doctors were using splints to treat polio. But as Sister Kenny demonstrated, this procedure further immobilized the muscles and killed the nerves. No matter how often Kenny proved her methods worked, however, doctors in Australia would not accept her cure. The orthopedists of Queensland even had a royal commission convened to investigate her treatment. They issued a 300-page document denouncing her, and denying her funds for new clinics and training.

Sister Kenny eventually had to leave Australia and take her cure to the rest of the world, where it was gratefully accepted. Her theories revolutionized the treatment of polio in the U.S. While today the Salk and Sabin vaccines are available to prevent polio, those who become afflicted are still treated with Kenny's methods. (SALES UPBEAT, April 30, 1992, pp. 12-14. ) The reality maps of the Australian doctors prevented them from seeing the truth.

"The wrong reality map can kill you," says John Alexander, "because your reality map sets your expectations. The right reality map can free you, vindicate you, or make you a hero. For individuals, nations, and cultures, all empowered by belief systems, reality maps are often the place where history is made and fates decided."

What is your reality map? What is your belief system? I'm not asking you to recite a catechism. I'm asking you to probe those beliefs that really guide your life.

TEXT John 20:1-18; Luke 23:55 - 24:11

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN OUR REALITY MAPS SAID THAT LIFE ENDED AT THE GRAVE.

The great actress Sarah Bernhardt kept a coffin at the foot of her bed so she could see it without effort on waking. It never left her presence even during her travels. She explained, "This is to remind me that my body will soon be dust and that my glory alone will live forever." Sarah Bernhardt's reality map told her that life ends at the grave. She wanted a coffin to remind her of the urgency of her work. And why shouldn't she? Her reality map told her there was no legitimate hope of life after death. She might as well make the best of this world, because it is the only world there is.

Have you heard of a group called People Forever International? According to the ARIZONA DAILY STAR this organization has adherents in 16 countries. PFI members think they will live forever--that they can cheat death. The group began in 1960 when co-founder Charles Brown experienced with what he calls his "cellular awakening" while mediating. "We are a species that has the ability to perpetually renew itself," Brown says. His idea is that by tapping into the intelligence of our cells we can prolong life indefinitely. However, Brown offers no guarantees of immortality, since, he says, rejuvenation is an individual process. That's good. At least three members of his group have died. (NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL REGLIGION REPORT, October 3, 1994, p. 5.6 )

Who could blame them for grasping at straws, though? If your reality map tells you that life ends at the grave, wouldn't it be natural to try to extend life as long as possible? No wonder people yearn for some method by which they can cheat death. Their reality maps tell them it's the end of the line.

THIS WAS THE REALITY MAP THAT THE FRIENDS OF JESUS WERE OPERATING UNDER THAT FIRST EASTER.

Jesus had told them different ) Matthew 17:22

And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of man is about to be delivered up into [the] hands of men, and they shall kill him; and the third day he shall be raised up.

But they had not understood what he was saying. In their own finite human mind they COULD not understand it !

And it is for that reason that on Easter sunday morning the picture we get from the New Testament is of a group of people who were totally demoralized. As far as they were concerned, their dreams were futile. Their master was dead. There was nothing left for them to do but to go back to their nets, back to their tax tables, back to their kitchens, and try to forget.

It was all an illusion--following this Galilean.

He spoke of life abundant, but now he was dead.

He promised a new kingdom, but kings don't die on a cross like a common criminal.

He spoke of God as his Father, but when he needed God most, God disappeared. How foolish they had been to give up their dreams to immerse themselves in his dream. He was dead and with him, everything he ever stood for. That's how Jesus' friends felt that first Easter morning. It was over. Finished.

But that was before they found the stone rolled away.

It takes your breath away to think of it, doesn't it? The stone was rolled away and their reality maps were forever shattered. The accounts of that first Easter morning are a little jumbled. Each of the Gospel writers gives a different perspective. It's not surprising. After all, what we have is not a finely-honed script, but eyewitness accounts. Such accounts are usually jumbled.

We know that Mary Magdalene was the first to the tomb. All the accounts agree on that. And they all agree as to what she found. The heavy stone had been rolled away. The grave was empty. He was alive. Can you imagine the impact this event had on the lives of Jesus' followers? Never again would they think of death in the same way. Once a reality map has been shattered, it can never be put back together. When a stone is rolled away, the world can never again be the way it was.

At one time people thought the world was flat. Columbus sailed his boats and a stone was rolled away. The world was forever changed.

At one time scientists and theologians believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Then Galileo rolled away a stone. Never again would humanity's perspective on the universe be the same.

At one time people attributed illnesses to all kinds of strange influences. Then Louis Pasteur did his research on bacteria, and a stone was rolled away. Never again could we go back to earlier ways of treating illness.

Remember the four-minute mile barrier? No one, the experts said, would ever be able to run the mile in less than four minutes. Then in 1954 a medical student by the name of Roger Bannister did the impossible. He broke the barrier. Today every world-class runner can run the mile in less than four minutes. A stone had been rolled away. Once a stone has been rolled away, nothing can ever again be the same.

Once death was all there was at the end of life, but the stone was rolled away !

THIS, OF COURSE, IS THE GOOD NEWS OF EASTER.

Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the tomb and the stone had been rolled away. Death had been conquered. Jesus' teachings had been validated. Nothing again would ever be the same. The lives of those who followed Jesus would now have extraordinary meaning and purpose and energy because the stone had been rolled away.

Roger Kruger, a pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas tells of a farmer he knows who once had the opportunity to go fishing on the Gulf of Mexico. This farmer had never been out on a body of water any bigger than a small lake where he sometimes fished, so he was looking forward to this experience. The fishing turned out to be lousy. They caught nothing. Still, he had a great time. He was especially enthralled by the sunrise and the sunset over the Gulf. Never before had he been able to see the entire horizon as the sun came up and the sun went down. The rapidly changing colors were awe-inspiring. Since he had his camera along, he took many pictures.

Back home, he was eager to get the film developed. When at last the pictures came, however, he made a discovery. He could no longer tell which of them were of the sunrise and which were of the sunset. They all looked the same.

Thanks to the empty tomb death is like that for the believer. To many it appears to be an end: the end of a life, the end of a relationship, a time of great sadness, a sunset, if you will. But for those who believe in Christ it is a sunrise--a beginning, the beginning of life with God.

Black poet James Weldon Johnson wrote of Sister Caroline in "Go Down, Death":

"She saw what we couldn't see/
She saw Old Death/
Coming like a falling star/
But Death didn't frighten Sister Caroline/
He looked to her like a welcome friend."

Easter Sunday changes our reality maps concerning death and the meaning of life. An enemy becomes a welcome friend. The stone has been rolled away.

Jesus is alive.... he walks with us, he talks with us. He is there whenever we need him. His promise was I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will be with you always. Death did not keep him from keeping his promises. He is alive. And because He lives we will live also ! Hallelujah !

http://folsom.sk.ca/easter4.htm

...

  ************************************  Weekly messages of hope and comfort for those who want to learn more about Jesus and His glorious plan for our lives.  To find out more about our ministry go to : worldoutreach.ca/sotn.htm  visit our "Ultimate Bible Quiz Site"  folsom.sk.ca/k4j/BQuiz/Quiz.html  *************************************                                                                              --  To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]