Every year at the University of Chicago Divinity School, they have what is called "Baptist Day." On this one day, everyone brings a picnic lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area. The school would invite some great theological mind to lecture while the students and faculty ate their lunches.
One year they invited Dr. Paul Tillich, who spoke for two and one-half hours "proving" that the resurrection of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any questions.
After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium. "Docta Tillich, I got one question," he said as all eyes turned toward him. He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.
"Docta Tillich"... CRUNCH, MUNCH... "My question is a simple question," CRUNCH, MUNCH. "Now, I ain’t never read them books you read..." CRUNCH, MUNCH...and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek"...CRUNCH, MUNCH ..." I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger"...CRUNCH, MUNCH... He finished the apple. "All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate - was it bitter or sweet?"
Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple."
The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."
The 1,000 plus in attendance could not contain them. The auditorium erupted with applause and cheers. Dr. Tillich thanked his audience and promptly left the platform.
Have you tasted Jesus? That is our question for this Sunday after Easter.
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It is called, in the church calendar, “Low Sunday.” The questions for this Sunday after Easter are... "What now?" Where have we come from? Where are we going? Did Easter make any difference?
1 John was written for Low Sunday. It was written for the time after Easter when we begin to doubt what we know is true. People started to say, I wonder if he was only a spirit or a ghost or an apparition. So John wrote this first of three short letters to answer one question, “Is he real?”
He uses three arguments summed up in the third verse; 3We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.
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From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, and verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
We saw it…
It’s not as easy as it might sound. After 36 years of darkness, a blind man can see again.
Jerry had to see it to believe it. Or, more accurately, he had to be able to see WITH it to believe it.
Dr. William Dobelle created the innovative device after 30 years of research in vision correction for the blind. The invention includes a mini-camera connected to a pair of sunglasses and a dictionary-size computer that a patient carries on a belt pack.
But getting the device to work was no easy task. First, Jerry had to undergo brain surgery. Surgeons implanted a small piece of platinum foil between Jerry’s brain and the dura, a membrane that surrounds the brain. The foil is covered with electrodes - tiny metal pieces that conduct electric pulses which connect directly to brain cells that control sight. The electrodes are attached to a wire that protrudes from Jerry’s skull through a small hole and hooks up to his computer.
No one ever said that restoring vision was going to be a pretty sight.
For Jerry to see an image, the camera on his sunglasses first snaps a picture. This image shoots through a wire to his portable computer, which translates the data into a series of electrical pulses. The pulses then race through the wire connected to Jerry’s brain. Finally, the electrodes stimulate his brain cells into thinking they’re seeing.
"Each electrode produces dots of light in the patient’s visual field, like stars in the sky," says Dr. Dobelle. "It makes the world look like a photo negative."
The view that Jerry now enjoys may not be perfect, but it’s made him a believer. Emerging from a world of darkness, he is suddenly seeing dots of light in his visual field and a photo negative view of reality which is infinitely more than his eyes experienced before.
What have you seen that helps you to believe in Jesus?
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3We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. 4Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joys will double our joy!
We heard it…
Fred and his wife Edna went to the state fair every year. Every year Fred would say, "Edna, I’d like to ride in that there airplane."
And every year Edna would say, "I know Fred, but that airplane ride costs ten dollars, and ten dollars is ten dollars."
One year Fred and Edna went to the fair and Fred said, "Edna, I’m 71 years old. If I don’t ride that airplane this year I may never get another chance."
Edna replied, "Fred that there airplane ride costs ten dollars, and ten dollars is ten dollars."
The pilot overheard them and said, "Folks, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you both up for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say one word, I won’t charge you, but if you say one word it’s ten dollars."
Fred and Edna agreed and up they go. The pilot does all kinds of twists and turns, rolls and dives, but not a word is heard. He does all his tricks over again, but still not a word.
They land and the pilot turns to Fred, "By golly, I did everything I could think of to get you to yell out, but you didn’t."
Fred replied, "Well, I was going to say something when Edna fell out, but ten dollars is ten dollars."
The most difficult part of sharing our Christian faith is knowing when to talk and when to remain silent.
What have you heard that might help you believe in Jesus?
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5This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
And now we are telling you…
It was the usual Sunday evening crowd. The young pastor stood up and walked over to the pulpit for the sermon. He hesitated and then introduced a guest minister sitting in the congregation. As the elderly man walked to the front of the church, the pastor told his congregation that this was one of his dearest friends.
“I’d like to tell you a story,” said the elderly man. “A father, his son, and his son’s best friend were fishing off the Pacific coast. A storm blew up and the boat was capsized. The father swam back to the boat and immediately began to search the ocean surface for the two boys. After a few frantic minutes he found them a short distance away, caught in the current, and moving away from the boat.”
“The father found a rope tied to the boat and turned to throw it…”
“Suddenly he realized he would have to decide which boy…”
“He remembered that his son was a Christian and the other boy was not, so he first threw the rope to his son’s friend. As soon as the boy was hanging onto the boat, the father turned to look for his son…”
“The boy was never found and his body was never recovered.” The old man continued, “Whenever I tell that story, I remember what God must have felt when he gave his son for me.”
Everyone sat in silence and not a sound could be heard in the sanctuary. Two boys were sitting on the front pew hanging on every word until the service was over. After the crowd started to leave, they cornered their pastor and said, “That can’t possibly be true! No father would give up the life of his son to save his son’s friend.”
The young pastor smiled and said, “I know the story is true, because I was his son’s best friend.”
Do you know a story of faith you’d like to tell someone else?
