Redwoods

(After the WTC disaster)

October 7, 2001

Acts 

After Jesus crucifixion things looked bleak for the disciples.

They believed that Jesus was God’s chosen one.

They followed him and declared their allegiance to him, even though by doing so they put their own lives in jeopardy. 

After all Jesus was thought of as a blasphemer by the religious establishment…that could be punished by death.

And increasingly he was thought of as a revolutionary by the Romans who ruled the land with an iron hand.

And then, this one who they believed in and trusted and left everything for, was hunted down and bound, charged and convicted, and brutally executed like a common criminal.

This put the disciples in a state of shock. 

They were numb. 

They knew their lives were in great danger. 

They felt they had lost something huge and they felt lost.

But several things were working which enabled the disciples to make it through arguably the darkest days of their lives.

First, as we look to that core group on Jesus followers, it’s obvious that we’re dealing with some very strong people.

Now, some of his followers we don’t know that much about, but those closest to Jesus seemed to be individuals with real strength.

Oh, they were human and they were flawed (and that’s what we hear the most about), but these were some very strong people.

Think about Peter…or James and John who were called the Sons of Thunder.

Think about Thomas (doubting) who wrote one of the other gospels, and who ultimately took the message of Christ to India.

Think about Mary Jesus mother, and think about Martha, that strong woman who knew how to give Jesus a hard time.

And think about that mysterious woman we call Magdalene. Her loyalty to Jesus was monumental…she followed him right to the cross, and was the first person Jesus appeared to after the resurrection.

There was so much strength in those close followers of Christ.

And that innate, God given inner strength helped them to make it when the going got tough and  their daytime became like nighttime.

Another thing…we know that their faith had a very great part in the fact that they ultimately made it through.

They were jolted…they were traumatized…but down deep they believed that somehow Jesus could not be contained by death.

They believed they experienced the presence of Christ after his death.

And they also came strongly to believe that the very spirit of God was with them. 

Their faith became deep and firm, so that no matter what happened to them after the trauma they kept their equilibrium…they remained strong and became stronger.

Their faith played a huge part in what they were ultimately able to do and accomplish.

But from my point of view, there was nothing that enabled them to get through their darkest days more than this……They stuck together.

When the disciples are mentioned in the gospels after Jesus death, they are always together.

They ate together…they prayed together…they shared their possessions with each other. Later on as the scriptures talk about them it says they were joyful together.

The disciples seemed to realize how absolutely critical it was for them to support and care for each other.

Their commitment to each other was……deep.

So, now 2000 years later, for different reasons, many of us feel shocked don’t we?

We feel that something huge has been lost.

We feel that something has happened that we never thought would happen. 

The visual spectacle of Sept ll…the ultimate wreckage…the lives lost and injured…the broken hearts…have left us traumatized.

Oh, we go on with our lives, but many of us feel a sense of numbness.We feel different.

And what I want to say to you today is this.

The things which will enable us to move through our trauma and the loss are the very same things which got the disciples through their ordeal so long ago.

For example, like in the disciples, there is a God given resiliency and strength within us which is so much more than many of us can imagine.

Albert Camus, the famous philosopher/journalist/dramatist once wrote these words…In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was within me an invincible summer.

Friends, our God given inner resources for recuperation  and rebounding are amazing.

Like the disciples we’re human and of course we’re flawed, but it’s nothing short of amazing what we can endure and handle….and bounce back from.

Next, like the disciples, our faith will sustain us.

Our faith in God, and our faith that God’s will will be done.

Our faith in Christ, and that the things he taught really are the things that matter in life.

Our faith that the Spirit of God is present…in our world, in our midst and within us.

The faith which has been passed on to us, which we have made our own, is one of the critical things which will sustain through these days.

And now to the last thing I want to mention.

Let me explain it to you by talking a little about a subject I love.

The subject is Redwoods. You know, those incredible trees out there in the 4th  best state in the U.S.A.

Jeri and I have spent time in the redwoods out in Muir Woods in California, and let me tell you….sitting in the midst of those trees is like sitting in a magnificent cathedral.

The redwoods there are 250 –300 feet tall. There’s actually one out there that’s 370 feet tall.

The branches on the older trees don’t even begin until about 100 feet up the trunk.

The diameter of some of them is 12 –15 feet…the sequoias get up to 16 to 18 feet.

It’s common for the bark on the redwoods to be one foot thick.

They weigh tons.

It’s common for a tree to be 1000 years old…and some have gotten as old as 1800 to 2000 years old.

And those trees out there in the Muir woods right next to the ocean, go through unbelievable weather.

Cyclones come in off the Pacific with huge winds.

Lighting strikes all the time.

And the area there goes through tremendous droughts and its not uncommon for fires to sweep through.

Earthquakes occur there occasionally.

All these things happen to the redwoods but it 

doesn’t budge them.

Now here’ s the most amazing fact about these incredible trees.

Do you know how deep their roots go? (if you know the answer don’t say it out loud)

Can you imagine how deep into the ground their roots penetrate?

The roots of these magnificent giants go down only 10 or 12 feet into the ground.

That’s it.

So one of the first questions we have is how in the world do they hold up all that weight?…how do they endure the cyclone winds?….how do they survive the earthquakes and the fires?

Here’s their secret.

They grow in groves with other Redwoods…the roots of an individual tree only go down 10 or 12 feet….but they reach out horizontally hundreds of feet intertwining with the root systems of all the other trees.

These giants literally hold each other up.

They are completely dependent on each other.

As magnificent as they are , there is absolutely no way they could make it without each other.

It wouldn’t even be close.

How do we make it through the storms, the fires and the earthquakes in our lives?

How will we make it through the storm, the fire the earthquake which just happened right 

in our midst?

The amazing God given inner strength that’s within us.

The faith which is so deeply a part of our lives.

And finally, just like the redwoods, we reach out to each other, we hold on, we are sustained, and nothing can bring us down.

Together we can survive anything.

And the people said……AMEN