Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
April 13, 2008 – 4th Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:42-47  
1st Peter 2:18-25   
Luke 24:13-35
John 10:1-10

In His Steps

I’m continuing to read about ways that technology can make our lives interesting – and fun!  I think several months ago I talked a little about this … but it is getting better.

Imagine yourself at a nice restaurant and the person at the next table … or maybe even a couple of tables away … is talking on their cell phone – not using a restaurant voice!  The conversation seems to go on and on … and seemingly is about nothing!  Well, technology has a solution.  You reach in your pocket, push a button, and send a signal that jams all cell phones within fifty feet.  Problem solved … and you don’t even have to complain about it!

There are some newer gadgets on the market, according to an article called “Revenge of Technology” in the Wall Street Journal.  According to the article, there is a $50 item that looks like a bird house – but it really is a piece of technology designed to deal with your neighbors’ barking dogs.  When the sound of incessant barking is detected, the device automatically emits a shrill sound – which the human ear cannot detect, but it is very irritating to the dog, and pretty soon the dog learns that to avoid the irritation, it needs not to bark!

There is another one that I think has an especially good market here in RI.  It is a luminescent screen that fits in your vehicle’s rear window that, at your command, will flash any of five different messages with matching emotion faces.   The messages are phrases like “Back Off” and “Idiot,” but now the company has received request for images of certain hand gestures.

There is a $20 item that will shut off TV sets in public places like bars and doctors’ offices. 

Then, there is a product called “The Mosquito” the product emits a high-pitched sound that is particularly irritating to teen-agers, usually causing them to move along and congregate some where else.  This doesn’t really bother the rest of us, because when you get to be our age, we’ve lost the ability to hear sounds that high pitched.

Finally there is a $12 doohickey that has a motion detector that you can attach to your glass or bottle of beer.  If anyone tries to touch your beverage while you are in the bathroom, for instance, it broadcasts a threatening voice that says, “Keepa your hands offa ma beer!”

Sooner or later there might well be a technological solution to many of life’s irritating problems … some low-cost device designed to exact a level of revenge against those who bother us.

And that leads us to today’s scripture passage in 1st Peter.  (I bet you didn’t think I could tie this into scripture, did you?)  It says that when Jesus was abused, he did not return the abuse.  It says that when he suffered, he did not threaten. 

Admittedly, Jesus’ suffering went way beyond life’s little irritations, but maybe that is the point. 

Peter has articulated a way of life specifically for slaves, but it contains a broader principle for all Christians … and is based ultimately on the behavior of Jesus himself.  He observes that it is one thing to be beaten for doing wrong and take it.  There is no credit in that.  Ah, but if we endure when we do right and suffer for it, now we have God’s approval! 

Clearly we live in a very different society from the one in which Peter lived and wrote, but we get the picture.  We’ve been blamed for things we didn’t do, accused of bad motives when our intentions were quite the opposite, or smeared as an opportunist when we were unselfishly trying to help someone.  Many of us have had reason to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.” 

What Peter is inviting us to do is to not compartmentalize our lives … to have one set of rules for living in one circumstance, and other standards for other circumstances.  So often we justify our bad behavior by pointing to what the other person did first.  When we do that, we overlook our own contribution to the problem of bad behavior in society. 

In 1897, Charles Sheldon wrote a book about a hypothetical minister and church.  He speculated about what it would be like if he and his parishioners decided to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.  As the story evolves, the entire town began to change in amazing and surprising ways.  Interestingly, 110 years later the book is still in print. 

That was the forerunner to the WWJD movement that was so popular several years ago, especially among the younger generation.  How would our lives be different if – every action we took was filtered through that concept?

The real message is about following Jesus.  The reality is that everybody knows that we have already – and will continue – to walk in places Jesus probably never imagined … so what is our guiding principle?

Will we consciously respond the way Jesus might have … or will we allow our behavior to be controlled by our own hurt feelings, our own fears, our own sense of self-preservation … or will we follow Jesus … walking in his steps?       

NOTE:  Today’s sermon was taken in large part from Homiletics, Vol. 20, Number 2, March / April 2008, Canton OH:  Communication Resources.   

SERMON IN A SACK:  A toy dog.  Talk about the responsibility of owning a pet.  Talk about the responsibility of a shepherd … and what that means Jesus does for us.