LOSING AND WINNING

Dr. Richard J. Henderson Easter Sunday, March 31, 2002

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Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24
John 20: 1-18

Introduction

Sometimes we win by losing. There are moments in your life and mine when we win, even though it looks for all the world like we have lost. In the same way sometimes we seem to have won, and in the long run we lose.

Those moments come when the project we have been working on seems dead in the water, completely defeated, but because it was handled with integrity and honesty it comes back to life and is more successful than it would have been in the beginning.

Sometimes when it looks like we have been horribly beaten, we are actually moving toward victory.

Let's take a look at history...

I

In Alabama in the 1960's African American's take to the streets to demand their rights. Even though the police response is fire hoses, police dogs, and cattle prods, these brave people do not fight back with violence.

They have been trained to protect themselves as much as they can, and to take whatever happens to them without striking back. They are beaten, arrested, and some are even killed.

Our nation watches as all this happens, and most people are horrified at the abuse that is meted out. The brutality is all one-sided.

Anyone present during that demonstration would surely say that the black protesters were soundly defeated. They were, quite literally, beaten. But they persisted in their non-violent protests across the nation.

Even though at each individual event they seemed to have been severely defeated. Their cause was finally recognized and significant change began to happen.

II

A woman boards a bus, tired from a long day's work. As the bus moves through its route, it picks up more people until it is nearly full. A white person gets on the bus and has nowhere to sit. He stands restlessly in the aisle.

Finally the bus driver comes back to where the woman is sitting and tells her to give her seat to the white person.

She refuses. She doesn't throw any punches. She doesn't scratch or kick or attack anyone. She doesn't even shout or scream. She simply sits in her seat, refusing to give it up.

She is totally non-violent, and she is arrested. This woman was in a conflict with the bus driver. She not only lost her seat, but she went to jail. She certainly lost that battle, didn't she?

III

Mahatma Gandhi worked diligently to free India from British rule. While not a Christian himself, he looked to Jesus Christ as his model for how to win that freedom non-violently.

He and the people he trained demanded their freedom, but they did it without retaliating with the violence that was heaped on them.

Many of you will remember the scene from the movie Gandhi where people are approaching a plant that has been closed, and the employees are barred from entering it.

Brutal guards stand in the way to keep workers from getting in. One by one the workers step forward to enter, and each time they are hit with a club and knocked to the ground.

As one person falls, another steps forward - knowing exactly what is going to happen to him - and he is clubbed to the ground. Another steps forward, then another, and another. But never does one of the workers fight back.

All this time the press is recording these vicious attacks. As pictures are sent out around the world, outraged nations begin to demand change. Suddenly British leaders are under intense pressure from rulers all over the world. Change begins to happen. In a matter of months the British have lost control, and India gains self-government.

Gandhi and his followers lost time and time again. In each confrontation you would have to say they lost the battle. But because of the way they handled themselves, because they never allowed themselves to be criticized for violence and brutality, in the end they won. They won the war without ever being violent.

IV

Jesus of Nazareth died a humiliating death of shame. After all the healing he had done, they killed him. After he had helped and taught and cared for so many people, the authorities nailed him to a cross.

The disciples were in despair. "How could we have been so wrong about him? We really thought he was going to be the one to save us; we thought he would bring us victory. But there he is hanging on a cross - completely defeated. Now what are we supposed to do? How could he let us down like this?" They leave the scene of the crucifixion deflated, despairing. All of their hopes have been crushed.

Rather than strike back against his captors, Jesus stood silently before them. Rather than prove his power and miraculously come down from the cross, Jesus died there. A real and total death.

This Jesus who so many put their hope in died a loser. Executed as a criminal. All that he worked for was in shambles. He lost.

Who in their right mind will ever pay attention to this person who ended up such a failure? What possible influence could he ever have in the future?

And yet....

Conclusion

The great preacher Barbara Brown Taylor tells a story she heard the week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. It goes something like this.

In a small town in the South a man drove by his church and noticed there wasn't an American flag anywhere on the church. This was during the frenzy of flags when everyone was flying flags everywhere.

The man drove immediately to Home Depot and bought a flag and a bracket to hold it. He went home, picked up his toolbox, and drove to the church. He began to drill holes in the wooden church sign to install the flag holders.

While he was doing this the new pastor of the church drove up. He rolled down the window and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I noticed there wasn't any flag here, of all places," the man said, his finger still on the trigger of his drill, "and I'm taking care of that,"

"You can't do that," the pastor said.

An angry debate followed. The pastor argued that the church represents Christians all over the world, not just in one nation. Besides, he said, the church should be a sanctuary free of political statements. We care for all God's children wherever they are in the world.

The man, who never put down his drill, responded that the church was obligated to pray for a nation that defended religious freedom. He said there was nothing wrong with asking God to bless America.

The argument went on for some time. Neither side gave an inch. Then the man said that he had two children who were on active duty. If he couldn't pray for them in church, then he was through with that church.

The pastor responded that he should by all means pray for his children, but praying for them didn't require nailing a flag to the church sign. Finally the pastor said that nothing could be attached to the church sign without the governing boards approval anyway.

With that the man threw down his drill and disappeared into the church. He sat in a pew near the front and began to say the Lord's Prayer over and over again until he stopped shaking.

In a little while he heard someone slip into the pew behind him. He figured he knew who it was, but he didn't turn around. They both just sat there in silence with nothing to look at but the communion table and the bright, brass cross that hung over it.

Finally, the man heard his pastor whisper in a low, broken voice he could hardly hear. "What are your children's names?" The pastor said. "If you will tell me their names, I promise you that I will pray for them every day until they come home."

The man said later that was the one of the few fights he could ever recall winning by losing. Actually they both won, because in one brief moment the cross had eliminated both of their adversaries.

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2002