SERMON PREACHED AT
STOUFFVILLE UNITED CHURCH
REV. CAPT. JOHN NILES
MUSIC BY DANIEL MEHDIZADEH AND CHOIR
Scripture:
John 20:19-31
Have you ever thought of yourself as a failure? Have you ever failed so miserably that you thought that even God was done with you? The kind of failure that brings deep shame and regret. The kind of failure that makes you regret the day you were born. I know it seems like I’m coming on a bit strong, but it isn’t unrealistic.
You see, it is more common than you think. We have all experienced failures in life. And some of those failures have caused people to become so debilitated and depressed that they felt like they couldn’t go on.
J.K. Rowling, author the Harry Potter novels, once said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.” She went on to say, “Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it is fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew… I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I was still alive, and I still had my daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
The night that Jesus was arrested, two of his most devoted disciples had massive failures. Judas’ failure was betrayal, Peter’s was denial. And then there were the disciples, who outrighted deserted and disappeared. They betrayed, denied or disserted the Lord.
And yet, with the exception of Judas who didn’t wait long enough to accept the forgiveness and mercy of God, the rest received it and went on because of it.
The message of Easter then and is now, that Jesus meets us where we are – whether like Mary outside of the sepulcher or the disciples hidden in fear in the upper room – and says “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so I send you.”
“Wait, what? You haven’t given up on us? You do remember that just a couple days ago we betrayed, denied and deserted you. What do you mean you still believe in us enough to trust us again?” That could easily have been their response. Yet Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me so I send you.” And in so doing, declares once and for all, that failure is not final. There is a way forward.
I
To fail forward one must begin by being wise enough admit our mistakes.
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:19-30
Thomas refused to admit that he was wrong. But when he was faced with the evidence that he was wrong he was big enough to admit his mistakes.
During the Los Angeles riots, an NBC radio reporter (Steve Futterman) who was covering the Los Angeles riot asked looters emerging from a store what goods they were taking from stores. He asked a looter, “What did you take?” The man, caught like a deer in headlights in his futile attempt to dodge the reporter, the question, and the camera, replied, “Nothing!” The same question to a second man resulted in angry cussing. Not giving up, the reporter pursued a third man. “What did you take?” he asked the third man.” The looter replied, “I got some gospel music. I love Jesus.” (Los Angeles Times, 10/4/92) There is no wrong way to do the right thing, the end does not justify the means and quick fixes are no long-term solutions.
J. M. Barrie – the author of Peter Pan said, “We are all failures – at least, all the best of us are.” Paul said, Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” There is not a single biblical character who did not fail and fail many times. Why? Because failure is a part of life.
Nelson Boswell commented, “The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views mistakes.” If you try to avoid them, bury them or run from them, you will gain nothing from them. It is only when you are wise enough to admit them.
II
To fail forward one must begin by being wise enough to admit their mistakes, and creative enough to benefit from them.
Last week when it seemed nothing was going right, and the sound system was crashing, the video clip had no sound, it seemed that we fumbled and stumbled from one mistake after another as the feeling of anxious tension filled the room and so I stopped simply said the wonderful thing about being here in this place; is that here mistakes are forgiven and it proves that we aren’t AI. Everyone laugh and some clapped because the simple truth is we all make mistakes we are human and as such being forgiven allows us to benefit from them.
Jesus didn’t come into the room condemning them but calming them. “Peace be unto you as the Father has sent me so I send you”
Understand that “To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they’re blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too.” ― Victoria Moran
We are beautifully imperfect at being perfectly human. After all, some of the most iconic creations in history were born out of mistakes, accidents, and failures. From the discovery of penicillin to post-it notes; to the microwave, to the pacemaker to potato chips and corn flakes. All of which were all derived from mistakes.
Even play-doh. The thing that most of us played with as children. Play-Doh, wasn’t even a toy in the beginning. Instead, it was a cleaning product developed by soap maker Kutol Products for use in households across the country. Kutol Products wasn’t doing well, and they were faced with going out of business by the end of the 1920s. Nonetheless, employee Cleo McVicker entered into a contract with grocery store chain known as Kroger to develop a wallpaper cleaner.
Using ordinary ingredients like flour, salt and water, Kutol Products produced a compound that could safely and efficiently clean wallpaper. This product kept the company afloat for a few decades, but sales were floundering again by the 1950s. McVicker’s son, Joseph, was inspired to re-imagine the cleaning product as a children’s toy.
Joseph’s sister-in-law, Kay Zufall, was a teacher, and she invited Joseph to bring the wallpaper cleaner to her classroom to see how the children played with it. After seeing how much the students enjoyed it, Joseph knew he had an idea that was destined for success. The ingredients were altered, and Kutol Products established another entity, Rainbow Crafts Company Inc., to market Play-Doh. When Play-Doh was introduced to a national audience on the Captain Kangaroo television show, history was made.
III
To fail forward one must begin by being wise enough to admit their mistakes, creative enough to benefit from them and finally, bold enough to believe without seeing. Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Henri Matisse said, Creativity takes courage.” He was right. It takes the courage to believe in what you can’t yet see.
Jesus said to the disciples on that day in the room of his appearing, “blessed are those who believe without seeing.” Every scientist, artist, composer or writer knows that creativity is not “seeing is believing.” Rather it’s found in knowing that believing is seeing. Scientists like Heisenberg who posited his “Uncertainty Principle tells us that the questions we ask create the answers that we get. Thus quantum physics tells us we live in a “Participatory Universe” in which we human beings, through beliefs that we hold and the thoughts that we think, and the actions that we take, cocreator reality. We make the world that we live in, and thus we are responsible for the world we have made. And, we have the capacity to make a different or better world simply by changing our believing thinking and thus the actions that follow from our thoughts.” And so believing – accordingly -is truly seeing. A scientific hypothesis is simply a belief that something is true and actions taken to prove if it is or not. Writers, composer or painters and creative artists all begin with a blank page or space and believe the art into being. Emily Dickson said “nature is a haunted house, but art is a house that tries to be haunted. The world of nature is a dwelling place, hauntingly mysterious, peopled with God’s creatures who live amid the phenomena God ordains…but art is a house that tries to be haunted”
Jesus didn’t come into the room condemning them,
but calming them and believing in them.
Jesus didn’t come into the room condemning them, but calming them and believing in them. So “stop trying to ‘fix’ yourself; you’re NOT broken! You are perfectly imperfect and powerful beyond measure.” ― Steve Maraboli
Believe it. And you will see it. You think about that. Amen