My dad's sermon that I remember best was his last. He preached it at Paoli United Methodist Church on May 14, 1989. The scripture lesson has been underlined in my Bible ever since: So he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty." Zechariah 4:6 (NIV).
When Dad stood up in the pulpit to preach that Sunday, I could tell that the service had been taxing for him. Despite being weakened by cancer and his aggressive treatments, he had led the worship service, conducted a baptism, and confirmed a class of young people into church membership. Looking out over the congregation, he began with a couple questions:
"What yields true personal strength? What enables us to triumph over the body slams that life deals us?"
My dad had a huge stake in those questions. The congregation knew that life had dealt him a tremendous body blow. I'm sure many expected my dad to answer those questions by examining his own struggles, but he didn't do that. He said, "I've been watching movies on TV a lot more ... for obvious reasons, and last week on back-to-back nights I saw two movies that help to unfold our text."
The first movie was "Top Gun," in which Tom Cruise plays a fighter pilot who loses his wing man in a horrible plane crash but pulls himself up by his bootstraps and goes on to distinguish himself as a Navy pilot. This pilot succeeds by his own sheer power and might.
The second movie was "Witness," set in my father's native Lancaster County. Harrison Ford plays a Philadelphia police officer who tries to protect a young Amish boy who witnessed a murder -- only to find that the boy's strongest source of protection is found in the non-violence of the Amish community, not in fists or guns.
My dad went on: "But what is a belief in non-violence, or for that matter any other Christian belief -- service, sacrifice, for example? At the bottom of these beliefs [is] a basic premise that the way to real personal strength -- the kind that makes us winners even when to the world we look like losers -- is not to be in control and to marshal all our resources ... but rather to surrender ourselves to a Power outside, a Power who is trustworthy, a Power who is ultimate, a Power who asks us to act in ways that the world thinks are crazy."
That Sunday morning, my dad may have looked to the world like one of life's losers. After all, he lost his battle with cancer the very next day. But, in reality, he was a winner, and he taught us all how to be winners, too. Not by power nor by might, but by the Holy Spirit.
"The Power of the Holy Spirit" -- 5/14/1989
The first movie was "Top Gun," in which Tom Cruise plays a fighter pilot who loses his wing man in a horrible plane crash but pulls himself up by his bootstraps and goes on to distinguish himself as a Navy pilot. This pilot succeeds by his own sheer power and might.
The second movie was "Witness," set in my father's native Lancaster County. Harrison Ford plays a Philadelphia police officer who tries to protect a young Amish boy who witnessed a murder -- only to find that the boy's strongest source of protection is found in the non-violence of the Amish community, not in fists or guns.
My dad went on: "But what is a belief in non-violence, or for that matter any other Christian belief -- service, sacrifice, for example? At the bottom of these beliefs [is] a basic premise that the way to real personal strength -- the kind that makes us winners even when to the world we look like losers -- is not to be in control and to marshal all our resources ... but rather to surrender ourselves to a Power outside, a Power who is trustworthy, a Power who is ultimate, a Power who asks us to act in ways that the world thinks are crazy."
That Sunday morning, my dad may have looked to the world like one of life's losers. After all, he lost his battle with cancer the very next day. But, in reality, he was a winner, and he taught us all how to be winners, too. Not by power nor by might, but by the Holy Spirit.
"The Power of the Holy Spirit" -- 5/14/1989
I wish I had heard him preach. Thanks for sharing.
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