Father Gary’s
Sermon
Sometimes in the daily
challenges that life gives us we forget how we arrived at where we are today.
Such a person was Charles Plumb a US Naval Academy graduate who was a jet pilot
in the Vietnam War. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a
surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was
captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the
ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when
Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up
and said, “You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in
Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!” “How in the world
did you know that?” asked
Plumb. “I packed your parachute,” the man
replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and then with gratitude. The man pumped his
hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb
assured him. “It sure did. If your chute hadn't
worked, I wouldn't be here today.”
Plumb couldn't sleep that
night thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept
wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib
in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have
seen him and not even said good morning, . . . how are you or anything
because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a
sailor.”
Plumb
thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the
bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of
each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.
Now Plumb asks his audience, “Who’s packing your
parachute?”
Everyone has someone who
provides or has provided what is needed to make it through the day. Indeed,
Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane
was shot down over enemy territory. He needed his physical parachute, his
mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called
on all these supports before reaching safety. His experience reminds us all how
we are prepared to weather whatever storms lie ahead. As we go through this
week, . . . this month, . . . this year, . . . we need to recognize the people
who pack our parachutes!
This is certainly the
message that is in our Gospel reading for today. Jesus is with his disciples
for one last event. His time among them is short. He must make every word
count. In preparing them for his departure, he explains to them that he is
providing them with a special parachute. Though he is leaving, through his
resurrection he will still be present among them. They will not be alone.
Indeed, through this very special resurrected presence he will provide them all
what they need. In describing this presence, he uses the metaphor, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” This
metaphor not only promises his continued presence, but it also promises
discipline, for any branch that does not bear fruit, that does not accomplish
the mission of Christ, will be pruned! In essence, as Plumb depended on another
to rightly pack his parachute, so we the disciples of Christ count on him for
our lives. In so accomplishing his purpose today our Lord works through many to
insure that our
parachutes
are packed to insure that we are prepared, . . . to insure that we will have
life, . . . indeed, life more abundantly.
But how is it that our Lord
accomplishes this? Luke tells us today in the Book of Acts when he wrote: “They [the disciples] devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” It
sounds all too simple. To maintain their life in the Vine, those early
followers did these four things. Together they studied the Scriptures. They
meant regularly for fellowship. Their lives were centered around the Holy
Eucharist and they upheld one another in prayer. This was the secret of their
success. This was the ground from which they were nourished with spiritual
water and minerals, as well as the source of their spiritual light and warmth.
It is also true for us today. While many claim to be getting more of their spiritual needs meant through television, radio, and the Internet, none of these can replace the local parish family. For if Christ is the Vine and we arc the branches, then we are talking about relationships. Special relationships, relationships through which we meet the Christ, and through which we are nourished and given the ability to produce fruit of our own--or stated differently, the ability to pack someone else's parachutes.
The local Church community
is where we find those people who often without our knowledge are packing our
parachutes. Just think about it. Who has packed your parachutes? What was their
relationship to Christ and the Church?
I can think of several for
me. But one in particular comes to my mind this morning. He was a professor
that I had in college back in the early 70's when our society was beginning to be ripped
apart. Why was our culture falling apart? The culture was suffering because so
much of society was built upon blind allegiances. Conformity was the name of
the game. We were not supposed to ask questions. It was not unusual, while
sitting in a theology or Bible class, to hear a student question a cherished
doctrine. It might go something like this: “Professor,
why is it important to believe in the Virgin Birth.” The standard
answer was: “You believe it because this is what
the Church has believed.” What kind of answer is that'? It's no
different than a child asking a parent why they should do so and so and the
parent curtly answering, “Because I told you to
do it!” Such answers may get things done in the short run, but they
only create resentment, as well as guarantee future rebellion, a rebellion that
is also just as thoughtless.
But Dr. Shelton wasn't like
that. No
question ever threatened him, and every student was treated with respect, as
well as with a gentle sense of humor. Because of him Biblical studies were
challenging, as well as relevant. Twice I went with this professor to Israel,
and on one of these occasions he co-signed my bank loan to make it possible for
me to go. When I was working on a controversial master's thesis which
integrated Biblical studies and psychology, he agreed to Chair my thesis
committee, while all the other professors were nay-sayers because nothing like
this had been done before. Through his sound teaching, inquisitive mind, and
fearless scholarship, his influence has given me a Biblical theology that has
provided me a spiritual foundation that holds up to anything our postmodern
world can throw at it. Why? Under Dr. Shelton’s teaching, study was more than
just blind acceptance. It was an adventure in exploring how Jesus is the Vine
and we are the branches. Without needing to become a fundamentalist to hold on to a solid belief
grounded in the Scriptures, this professor packed my parachute well to weather
the winds of modern willy-nilly theological thinking. Today I am still able to
stand unashamedly in orthodoxy with one foot planted in the Scriptures and the
other in the best of the scientific evidence, providing me with a well-rounded
spirituality.
Today I realize that I am
where I am because of those I have shared spiritual fellowship. With them I
shared the Holy Eucharist. Through their prayers I have been strengthened,
comforted, and transformed. They are the ones who packed my parachute. I
imagine the same is true for you. All you have to do is stop and reflect upon
those special persons who packed your parachutes.
This is also what we are
doing today as we come together to baptize David Sanford Peace. His parents and
godparents are making vows for him. With these vows they are promising to keep
him in the teaching, fellowship, sacraments, and prayers of the Church. The
rest of us are promising, as well, to assist them. These are serious vows. In
keeping them we are assuring David that he will be kept in the presence of the
Lord. Indeed, through our actions today we are making David a new branch on the
Vine of Christ. It will also be up to us to keep him connected and healthy. It
will be up to us to pack his parachute! Indeed, it is up to us to pack each
other’s parachutes, as well!