Living For Eternity

Sermon: "LIVING FOR ETERNITY" D. Anderson

Is. 26:1ff; Rev. 21:9-11,22-27; Mat. 5:1-12

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Here again these breath-giving Words

proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah:

But your dead will live; their bodies will

rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and

shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of

the morning; the earth will give birth to her

dead. (Isaiah 26:19 NIV)

These are Your Words, Heavenly Father,

sanctify us in Your Truth, Your Word is

everlasting Truth. Amen.

November has come and with it the first

tattle-tale signs that winder stands at a

distance, but its frigid breath is even now

blowing across our lands and neighborhoods.

November gives us reason to dream again of

the summer mornings which came with a bright

sun, a warm breathless sky, and the light-

cover of dew sprinkled over the grass with

gossamer fairy napkins dropped here and there

along the way.

I have always been fascinated by the dew of

early morning. The invisible moisture of a

rich Minnesota atmosphere condensed against

blades of green grass as the evening

temperature had cooled with the setting sun.

Dew-swept grass looks brand new... like no

human foot has ever walked its way.

Last summer was a bit dry, and the dew seemed

lighter than usual in the early morning. In

all the changing weather patterns of

Minnesota, we are taught many lessons about

faith and life. Do you remember how dry it

was back in the late 80’s? Well--imagine

with me a desert area much dryer than

anything that we have ever experienced in

Minnesota.

Imagine with me a man lost in a cruel, hot

and barren desert. For days he has gone

without water-- his body scorched by day

under a relentless sun, and chilled at night

without shelter.

He is parched to the bone-- dehydrated and

about to die of thirst. He finally falls

face first into the sand with little energy

left. He looks up, and within twenty feet,

under the shade of a large cliff, he sees a

water pump, a small jar of water and a

tattered piece of leather.

You can imagine his joy as he runs to the

cliff and begins to down the jar of water!

But before he was halfway done with the jar,

he sees some words scribbled on the piece of

leather. The message says: "Do not drink

the jar of water. You must use it to prime

the pump. Pour it down the top opening and

it will wet the washer and allow you to draw

water. Then drink as much as you desire, and

fill the jar for the next traveler."

The man now is in a terrible predicament.

What if the pump doesn’t work... or the well

is dry? Should he risk the precious little

water that he has? Should he trust that

there is water beyond his sight? Or should

he drink what he has, hope for the best, and

let the next traveler fend for himself? What

would you do?

The man in the desert is a parable about life

and faith? It describes each one of us, but

not the outcome--the outcome for each one of

us will be tailored by our justified...

sanctified life.

The man lost in the desert is you, or me, or

any other child of Adam and Eve. Each of us

sense that we live in a world that is

dangerous and we are far more frail for life

than we would like.

-->We fear a deadly disease suddenly

diagnosed within our flesh...

-->We are concerned about the midnight

intruder breaking into our homes...

-->We think about tornadoes and lightning in

the summer, and devastating, life-threatening

blizzards in the winter.

-->We jump like a leaf hit by a gust of wind

when in the room next door, where our child

is at play, we here a large thumb and a

sudden, chilling scream...

-->We try to push aside catastrophic fears

about the destruction of our planet...

Most of these fears have been with the human

family since the Fall. When Jesus spoke the

words of our Gospel text, He was speaking to

the heart of all our fears.

He spoke to people who were themselves broken

because they lived in a broken world. And

our Lord tells them, and us, that in all our

trials and conflict, we can experience

blessings in Him.

And yet, and we must be clear about this, the

blessings of Christ do not come by way of the

world... after all, the world is broken.

They do not come by the logic of the world

which says "eat, drink and be merry, for

tomorrow we may die!"

Each of us, according to the parable, has

been given a small amount of time, as the