Sermon by Neil Earle
Just before Rose Parade Monday my wife and I went to a movie in Pasadena. It was rainy and stormy. The movie was The White Countess. Pretty interesting. It was set in 1930s China where this blind diplomat played by Ralph Fiennes builds himself a nice, high-class caf or tavern in Shanghai with money he won on a horse race.
He names it The White Countess after a Russian lady he meets who is a Countess in exile who serves as his hostess. It's a serious movie. The shadow of the Japanese invasion hangs over 1935 Shanghai. Eventually they all have to flee on the ocean to a safer place while Shanghai is bombed. Reminds you of Empire of the Sun in a way.
But it also reminded me of Rick's Cafe Americana in the movie Casablanca – a little outpost of rest and neutrality and conviviality in the darkening 1930s.
After the movie it was still rainy and wet and blowy and my wife and I went to a nice restaurant in Pasadena we sometimes go to. It was cheerful and bright and warm against the cold blustery night outside and I told my wife, Susan, this place reminds me of the movie we saw and also of an Ernest Hemingway short story that always stuck with me. It was titled A Clean and Well Lighted Place about an old man who comes to this nice Spanish restaurant and orders the same thing, comes just before closing. The young server wants to go home but the older proprietor is more compassionate – "No, serve him, he's an old man. Maybe he just needs a clean and well-lighted place to go to. Who knows what trouble he's seen."
And it all struck me that Hemingway was using a nice retreat during the night as a metaphor for a place of rest and refreshment in the midst of a terrible century. Hemingway has been called an old softie by some and this story always stayed in my mind.
It struck me as a good intro to this sermon. I'm trying to say that that's what the people in this dark, dank world are maybe looking for in 2006 – a clean and well-lit place, a place to hang their hat, to find some cheer against the storm outside.
Someone said 2005 was such a bad year that we get to do it over again. Let's hope that's not true. From tsunamis to hurricanes we've seen enough. We need, the world needs, a clean and well-lit place and my prayer is that the Church can be just that in the next year. You know:
"Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came"
Pop culture has a way of stealing the Gospel agenda. I'm not recommending alcohol as a cure, by the way, I'm just saying what Jesus said, that the Church is to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). He himself was accused of being a friend of the rowdy crowd, a friend of sinners and he was condemned for that, remember? Look it up. Maybe one reason Jesus hung out with sinners is because they were more fun than the righteous, or those who thought they were.
A clean and well-lit place.
Seems to me the church has a job on its hands and one of them is to get the balance between rejecting the values of the world (1 John 2:15-17), and showing God's love to the world – John 3:16 and all that.
Can we be a clean and well-lit place, a beacon, a place where sinners can come and not feel condemned? It's an uphill struggle. Every pastor knows what it's like to encourage his people to walk the line between being the Light of the World and not being overcome by the world.
Of course, what it's all about is having a heart for the lost, inviting more people into our circle of concern, not inviting people to the church but inviting them to a clean and well-lit place where they can find rest for their souls (Matthew 9:35).
That's a tall order, because we'd rather condemn the world than reach out to it. It's easier to blast Hollywood or whatever (which seems like it could need some blasting recently) but it's always easier to criticize than to create a superior alternative – a clean and well-lit place.
Ultimately we'll be judged on how many prisoners we visited, how many sick we looked in on, how many strangers we welcomed, how many people we helped. Won't we (Matthew 25:41-46)?
That's a bit scary but it is a good reminder of what we are supposed to be all about as God's people. John Stott said evangelism is one beggar telling another where he found bread. Seems like a good motto for 2006.