Henrietta United Church of Christ

Easter April 11, 2004

Mark 16:1-6 Rev. David Inglis

"The Insight of Hindsight"

What a difference a day makes, and what a different one empty tomb makes! Suddenly, the apparent tragedy of Jesus’ ministry was turned into a triumph of cosmic proportions. The suffering servant became the Savior. The son of Mary became the immortal Son of God–because a dead end swung open into eternity.

From the vantage point of the Resurrection, Jesus’ actions and words, his life and his death, took on a whole new compelling meaning. His followers saw Jesus differently, and they saw themselves differently too. The insight of hindsight was truly transformative.

So here’s the question: What would it be like to apply that insight of hindsight to our own lives? What if we could see the lives we’re living right now from the vantage point of what lies beyond this life? Most of us know people who say that when you’re dead, you’re dead. The light goes out, and we fall into oblivion. And we have to admit that most of the time all we can see is what’s right in front of us. We seek pleasure and avoid pain, and get along as best we can with what we can see and touch and hear. But what if that’s as incomplete a picture of us as is Jesus’ life and death without the Resurrection? What if that misses the whole point?

This week I read about a woman who found her life changing dramatically when she woke up to the whole picture of who she is. She had read Betty Eadie’s book Embraced by the Light, in which Betty described what she experienced when she hemorrhaged to death after surgery. The woman read Betty’s description of going through a tunnel, and gradually coming face to face with a profoundly peaceful, warm, light-filled energy of unconditional love, which was emanating from Christ for her and that is offered to all of God’s children. The woman read that not all souls are ready to open to this light and love when they die, and their separation from it creates their own self-made hell. She read about Betty’s life review, where she saw all the good things and the selfish things she had done, and how each action rippled out into the world, creating more love or more darkness. The woman also read about why our souls take on human life with all its challenges, about the power of prayer, and about the angels that are sent to guide us.

The woman who read this book sent this letter to Betty:

Dear Betty, I am writing you from jail. My poor decisions about drugs and choice of "friends" landed me right here! I thought that my world was going to end. Little did I know that God was actually helping me by saving my future, my life and most of all my spirit.

When I first arrived here I had a cell-mate that had been in here for some time. Every day she read to the other inmates from your book. I wasn’t the least bit interested. I just wanted to sleep off my "high." On the third day of her reading to the others while I slept, I woke up and began sobbing. It had touched me deeply.

A few days later, my roomie was transferred to another program, and left behind her library books. When I looked at her selection and read the title, Embraced By The Light, my heart skipped a beat, and my body felt just warm all over! That night when there were no distractions, I began reading your book myself.

After I read Embraced, I became more active in every way. I started going outside and playing basketball and I went to church, but most of all, I STARTED PRAYING AGAIN! I actually have more of a "life" in jail than I did outside. My mother says that her daughter has returned ... she can see it in my eyes, my face, and hear it in my voice. With your help and God’s, I am back!! I feel so spiritually "tuned-up" that I can’t wait to share it. Of course, I have shared your book with twelve other inmates, and anyone new is handed your book after meeting me.

I have now also read your second book, The Awakening Heart. I feel that it was intended that I should read both your books. You see, I have had experiences in my life that might be rough, but I have always known that I was directed to become a leader of women somehow.

I am leaving tomorrow. I just wanted to finish this and let you know that my change of spirit has made a positive difference here in jail, and I can also see the "ripples" of hope and love spreading out to even more people. Thanks for helping me find myself again and for reminding me of God’s love for us all. I will miss my sisters in here, but we are going to keep in touch. I know the positive changes that we have made, and the closeness that we feel and share, are all a part of your "Ripple Effect!" We love you!

This letter reminds me of a poem written by William Wordsworth:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home...

Even a druggie in jail began to remember who she really was and to reveal her clouds of glory when she was able to see her life from the vantage point of eternity.

So what about you? What insight into your life right now could you gain if you opened to the hindsight that you will have on the other side of this life?

For example, do you ever wonder why you were born, and if you have some kind of purpose for being here? God told Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer. 1:5). Betty Eadie learned that that’s not only true of great prophets, but that every soul works with God’s Spirit to make plans and set goals for its earthly life, and then chooses a human body and situation to give it both the gifts and the challenges it will need to work towards its purpose.

Some souls might have a special purpose, like breaking a family’s cycle of abuse, or opening young people’s minds through teaching, or supporting a family member or friend in their difficult mission. Even a baby that dies in infancy can have a purpose, like helping its parents deepen and grow through the experience of grief. Some of you have heard me talk about Benjamin, a baby who was born with a brain stem but no brain. He was adopted by a family I know that adopted a number of multiply handicapped children, and it was Benjamin’s total helplessness and total innocence that drew all the other children out and taught them to love unconditionally one who was far more handicapped than they. And little Benjamin, without a brain, would burst into laughter when he felt the love, sending all the children into gales of laughter and joy. I suspect that brainless Benjamin had a great soul.

Whether our purpose is grand or humble, we have all chosen life in this world because its challenges and trials are a perfect school for our souls to develop their strength and deepen their capacity to love. Betty says we take on human life for much the same reasons we might go to a university, even though we know it will be hard and challenging at times.

But when we are born, we are made to forget what our purpose is. Even Betty was told she had to forget the purpose she had yet to fulfill when she returned. She knew that she would fulfill her purpose by growing into it step by step through faith, not by holding it in her mind. But we can sense that we are on course if we are following our passion or what deeply fulfills us, or if we find ourselves learning and growing, even through our failures and mistakes. Betty learned that we are not blamed for our failures and mistakes. They’re a natural part of the learning process.

She says, "As long as we have life here, we are learning, our spirits are growing, and we are coming closer to the divine, even by the things we suffer. We may not always know what to do in our lives, we may be troubled and in pain, but be assured, as long as we are here, we are growing.

Life in this world can be very strenuous and demanding and lead us through heartache and pain. Some of you right now are going through a time that is especially difficult. From our earthly perspective, it may feel like the worst of times. But from an eternal perspective, this may be exactly the kind of experience you need to help you get what you came here for. It can help a lot just knowing that. The most important thing is to stay open to God and not give up as you struggle to keep moving forward as best you can. Know that God understands how hard it is for you right now, and God’s angels are cheering you on, even when you feel farthest from God. God never abandons us and never stops caring for us. But like a good parent, God knows that we usually grow best by struggling to work things out for ourselves, drawing in the wisdom and guidance God makes available in different ways. If God protected us from the struggles and pain, that would undermine our whole reason for being here.

You know, the Apostle Paul saw our world from the vantage point of eternity when said in 1 Corinthians 13: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. And now, faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love." Betty Eadie echoes and expands this profound truth in her third book, The Ripple Effect. She says,

As I stood in the presence of Christ he spoke these words: "Above all else, love one another." He was emphatic. This was the most important truth I would learn in my experience with him, and he wanted me to understand it, to feel its full impact. It is the most important thing we can know. To love is the reason we exist. To learn to love more fully is the reason we have come to earth. Love is the energy which holds the universe in place. It is the gateway through which we return to our Creator. It can conquer any problem, ease any suffering, heal any disease. Love creates and magnifies the joys of life. And, at the moment of death, love turns all earthly pain into indescribable bliss. We were conceived in love spiritually, and love is the center of our beings. It is the energy of our souls, the spark of our divine nature. Being made of love we cleave to it and seek it in all that we do. . . . Its presence or absence colors our every action. It is life. It is happiness. It is salvation itself. "God is love; and those who dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them" (I John 4:16).

So how do you see your life? Are you an accident of nature tossed up on the shore of this world to struggle for survival and satisfaction as best you can, until the tides of time wash you away again like an empty shell? Or are you an eternal soul, created by love for love? Look at the empty tomb. Listen to Jesus saying, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Hear him saying to you, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, and my Father is, you may be also."