Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35
I have a confession to make….I am a bit of a country music fan. I enjoy some country music simply because the lyrics make me laugh…like the song from country music great George Strait. “All my ex’s live in Texas, and Texas is the place I dearly love to be. But, all my ex’s live in Texas, and that’s why I hang my hat in Tennessee.” But, for the most part, I enjoy country music because these are songs about life…about the bittersweet, about goodness, about hope. One of my current favorite songs is by a duo known as Montgomery Gentry. The song is entitled “Some People Change.” Actually, I love the video to this song. The setting is a church service of sorts outside under a tent – you have the sense of a revival meeting. Near the end of the video, an entire gospel choir enters the tent joining in on the refrain. I find the music and lyrics uplifting. The song centers around a man whose father is a racist and who has taught him to hate, and around a woman who is an alcoholic like her mother – both choose to change their lives. Here is the refrain: “Here’s to the strong, thanks to the brave, don’t give up hope, some people change, against all odds, against the grain, love finds a way, some people change. Thank God for those who make it, let them be the light, let them be the light, some people change” (www.onlylyrics.com).
In our lesson from Acts today, Peter offers us the opportunity to change, he offers us hope in Christ. Peter proclaims to the crowd that Jesus who was crucified is the Messiah and “…they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him’” (Acts 2:37-39). We can change. Our Gospel lesson from Luke offers further insight. Two of Jesus’ followers are on the road to Emmaus talking “about all these things that had happened” – about Jesus’ ministry and the crucifixion and the empty tomb and the angels who say Jesus is alive. Jesus comes near and speaks to them, but the two followers do not recognize Jesus. Jesus exclaims, “‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart!’” (Luke 24:25). Most certainly, this Gospel lesson lends itself to a sermon on recognizing Jesus in others. However, in combination with the lesson from Acts, the message of change comes forth, of recognizing ourselves, of recognizing the change that Christ offers us.
One of my favorite family movies is The Rookie with Dennis Quaid. The movie is based on the real life story of Jimmy Morris, a high school science teacher and baseball coach. The movie opens showing us Jimmy as a young boy with a fervent love of baseball practicing his pitching for hours on end. His father is in the Navy and they move frequently. They end up in Big Lake, Texas where football is everything and Little League Baseball is nowhere to be found. His father takes no interest in his baseball and father and son develop a stressful relationship filled with resentment. Jimmy grows up, attends Junior College, is drafted to play baseball, but arm injuries keep him from making it to the major league. He becomes a science teacher and the baseball coach at the local high school.
Well, the baseball team is struggling. We see a football field that is beautifully manicured and a baseball field that is nothing but dirt. The team is losing their games. The players have no spirit and are ready to quit. Morris, after a difficult loss, talks to the team about the importance of having a dream. The players push back on him about his dream to play baseball in the major leagues. And, so, a deal is made. If the team wins district, Coach Morris agrees to attend a baseball tryout. Sure enough, the team turns around and wins the district championship. Coach Morris needs to fulfill his end of the bargain. So, his wife goes off to work one day, and Morris, with three young children in tow including an infant, drives 90 miles to participate in a baseball tryout with scouts from the major leagues. Unaware of the full measure of his strength, Morris actually pitches 12 balls in a row each at 98 mph, putting him among the top major league pitchers. He gets the call into the minor leagues. But, he has a difficult decision to make. He is 35 years old, he has a family. Being on the road for months on end at this age, with a meager salary and a family to support, is not an easy call. And now, we get to see more of his relationship with his father. His father still lives in town and they still have a strained relationship. But, Morris wants his father’s approval. So, he stops by his father’s house and his father has this to say to Morris about pursuing his baseball dream: “It’s okay to think about what you want to do until it’s time to do what you are meant to do.” To Morris, his father is telling him to grow up, forget baseball and move on. However, with encouragement from his wife, he decides to take the chance. He plays in the AA League and moves on to the AAA League. He struggles being away from his family and the family struggles financially. But, the call finally comes. He is called up to be a relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He is the oldest rookie in the Major League.
Now, if you are at all sentimental as I can be, you might be crying at this point in the movie when the boys from the high school baseball team drive to Arlington Stadium in Arlington, Texas to watch their coach play in the Major Leagues, and the townspeople who have known Morris since he was a child come to watch him play. But, if you are not crying during this scene when everyone is there to see the hometown boy put in as relief pitcher in a game between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Texas Rangers, you will be moved in the next scene, when Morris’ father shows up at the ball park and approaches Morris after the game. This is a moment of repentance by a father for time lost, for not being there for Morris in his childhood, and a time of forgiveness by a son – Morris gives his father the game ball. Change can be about career, about location, about life style. Change can also be about the heart, about how we relate to one another, about the release from anger and resentment and other consumptive emotions.
Now, in our self-help society, in our world with bookstores filled with self-help guides, this is not a self-help sermon: a simple how to change our ways to live a better, more rewarding life. This sermon is about the change offered to us through Jesus Christ. Through Christ, we are given freedom, freedom to be all we were created to be, free to live into the goodness of God’s Creation. Morris’ father offered this advice: “It’s okay to think about what you want to do until it’s time to do what you are meant to do.” With all the resentment Morris carried in his heart over his father’s lack of interest in Morris’ passion for baseball, Morris heard this advice to be about growing up and moving on and forgetting baseball. But, without this resentment, perhaps this advice is about following your dream, about doing what you are meant to do, about trying out one more time. Perhaps Morris’ father, in the pain of a stressful relationship with his son, doesn’t even recognize his own advice. But, deep down there is stirring in their hearts, in Morris’ heart, and in his father’s heart. Morris wants his father’s approval and his father wants reconciliation. We need to pay attention to these stirrings, to change career, or lifestyle, or relationships. Because I believe these stirrings are the road to self, the road to freedom, the road to living fully into whom God calls us to be. Montgomery Gentry and the gospel choir sing: “Here’s to the strong, thanks to the brave, don’t give up hope, some people change, against all odds, against the grain, love finds a way, some people change. Thank God for those who make it, let them be the light, let them be the light, some people change.” This change, living into our true selves, living into all God created us to be, is the light of Christ – a gift for the taking. Amen.
