A LEAP INTO THE LIGHT
by Bob Wickizer
Scripture: ACTS 10:34-39, ACTS 10:41-43, I CORINTHIANS 15:1-11, JOHN 20:1-18, PSALMS 118:1-2, PSALMS 118:14, PSALMS 118:16-24
A Leap into the Light
Bob Wickizer
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18
4-20-2003 Easter
At the powerful Tenebrae service on Thursday night in Wyatt Hall, the dance company decided that at the moment in their production when Jesus was crucified, they would turn ON the alpha window. When I questioned this move with them they pointed out to me that the crucifixion was a beginning not an end. No better way to show this than to illuminate the Alpha portion of Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
Yes, resurrection is a beginning and the truth of it is profoundly disturbing. A preacher I heard recently reflected on Pilate's words, "What is truth?" and he went on at length to talk about truth as some kind of unchangeable thing with one interpretation and one meaning for all time. I have lost patience with those who fight passionately over intellectual truth like dogs fighting over scraps of meat. For me what has replaced the idea of truth as something with one interpretation and one meaning has been the simple notion that a story can only be true when it helps me or gives me the courage to continue. Truth and faith both require and give courage. Truth and faith require what philosopher Sören Kierkegaard called a "Leap in the Dark." I want to share with you a story of one man's leap in the dark.
A business colleague in Boston a few years ago shared with me the story of his father escaping from a Nazi prison in World War II. Marc was born in France shortly after the war but his parents told him this story many times. When he was about ten, his father took him to the prison site to show him where he had actually landed twelve years earlier. Like many French Roman Catholics Marc's father was not a terribly religious man but he had grown up with Sunday school and Bible lessons.
When Hitler's troops took over his village south of Paris, Marc's father and mother were separated and sent to prison. Marc's fath ...
Bob Wickizer
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18
4-20-2003 Easter
At the powerful Tenebrae service on Thursday night in Wyatt Hall, the dance company decided that at the moment in their production when Jesus was crucified, they would turn ON the alpha window. When I questioned this move with them they pointed out to me that the crucifixion was a beginning not an end. No better way to show this than to illuminate the Alpha portion of Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
Yes, resurrection is a beginning and the truth of it is profoundly disturbing. A preacher I heard recently reflected on Pilate's words, "What is truth?" and he went on at length to talk about truth as some kind of unchangeable thing with one interpretation and one meaning for all time. I have lost patience with those who fight passionately over intellectual truth like dogs fighting over scraps of meat. For me what has replaced the idea of truth as something with one interpretation and one meaning has been the simple notion that a story can only be true when it helps me or gives me the courage to continue. Truth and faith both require and give courage. Truth and faith require what philosopher Sören Kierkegaard called a "Leap in the Dark." I want to share with you a story of one man's leap in the dark.
A business colleague in Boston a few years ago shared with me the story of his father escaping from a Nazi prison in World War II. Marc was born in France shortly after the war but his parents told him this story many times. When he was about ten, his father took him to the prison site to show him where he had actually landed twelve years earlier. Like many French Roman Catholics Marc's father was not a terribly religious man but he had grown up with Sunday school and Bible lessons.
When Hitler's troops took over his village south of Paris, Marc's father and mother were separated and sent to prison. Marc's fath ...
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