Words from Yesterday

Yesterday’s Story of Resurrection… Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead… is certainly an Easter story isn’t it! And we have Easter coming up in just a few weeks!

It’s a story of New Life! I can talk about that! I love talking about that! I’ve told that story! And we’ve heard about stories like that a few years ago. We invited people to come and share their stories of resurrection in the season after Easter.

We heard stories of people who came back to life again after events such as war, where there was a real fear of death! And from someone in Living Word, we heard a story of a change in the seasons of life – of someone who was looking at the ending of one career and the beginning of another one- although they both share in aspects of science and art, yet one was more centered around the sciences, and the other centered around the arts.

We recognize the gifts of blessings along the way in the season of Resurrection!

But what about us? What about not squandering our gifts… what about not squandering what we’ve been given?

I look at us here, in this community and this culture – we’ve been given so much! So much opportunity, so many choices. And I think… “don’t squander this!”

I look at my younger years and remember the quote – “Youth is wasted on the young!” Perhaps I would have taken more opportunities as they came my way… if only I’d have the benefit of hindsight!

When I was in my early twenties, I had the opportunity to sign up for US Army Jungle School in Panama- two fun filled weeks in the jungles of Panama! Well, as it turned out, the school was full- but they put my name down as the alternate. So if anyone on the list could not go, I would be next. So they offered me a chance for a three-week Troop Leader Training in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. About a month before my time for Hawaii, someone came to me saying a slot had opened up at Jungle School, and did I want to go there instead of Hawaii? “No”, I said, “I’ll stick with Hawaii.” Now, look back on that wishing I’d taken the gig in the jungle.

Now this is not a huge regret, but knowing what I know now, I would have chosen differently.

But what about the other opportunities we have placed in front of us? Through blessing or pain, we sometimes have opportunities placed before us… here’s a story from the Saturday Morning NPR program “Weekend Edition with Scott Simon”.

When Derrick Lemon was 8 years old in 1994, he saw two boys throw his 5-year-old brother, Eric Morse, out of a window of the Chicago housing project in which they lived.

Derrick tried to stop them. But the boys bit and scratched him. He ran down 14 flights of stairs to try to catch his little brother. But Eric died.

The boys, who were 10 and 11, also stabbed and beat Eric and became the youngest people in U.S. history to be jailed for murder.

The case shocked and saddened people around the world. A fund was started for Derrick Lemon, to help support a troubled boy who had tried to save his brother, and whose mother was strung out on drugs.

Lemon is 24 now. This week, he was sent to prison for 71 years for murdering a man named Illya Glover. Lemon was choking his own aunt at a family gathering when Glover, a neighbor, tried to stop him. Lemon shot him.

Derrick Lemon's attorneys argued that he had grown up a casualty of a singularly cruel crime. But Judge Thomas Hennelly told his courtroom, "People experience tragedy in this building every day — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. ... It doesn't give someone carte blanche to act like a bully and a brute and act like he's above the law."

And Illya Glover's daughter Crystal asked Lemon, "Why did you do this to my dad? ... You know how it feels to lose a loved one."

Derrick Lemon got more than $1 million after his family sued the Chicago Housing Authority for not securing the windows in the housing project. But even before his brother's death, he had skipped school, picked fights and ran with gangs. He was convicted of burglary when he was 18 and got probation. While awaiting trial for the murder of Illya Glover, he was arrested for threatening someone with a gun.

Illya's sister, Gail Glover, said of Derrick Lemon, "he got all this money and he could have done something. ... Instead he wanted to hang out on the corner."

Justice required the judge to deliver a sentence that will prevent Lemon from hurting or killing another human being, and to levy the most severe punishment possible in Illinois for the worst crime. Glover's family may point out that it's still hardly as harsh as murder.

But you can look at Derrick Lemon and wonder how he might have stopped himself from leaping headlong into the same spiral of violence that killed the brother he had once tried so bravely to save.

It’s a bitter story to hear! It’s a story of choices leading up to some terrible outcomes. It’s a hard story to hear- bitter endings for a young man with such possibilities!

I can look at my kid’s lives – and see they are given the gift of time! And I want to say- “Don’t squander this opportunity!”

I wonder what the old trees would say to us as we pass by beneath their towering limbs, day-in and day-out… with our plans, and our ideas, and our decisions?

Is the permanent sky impassive to our choices? Are the clouds the sky’s way of saying “DON’T PASS THIS UP!”

Or is thunder God’s way of telling us to WAKE UP! To open our eyes to what is before us! To see what is in front of us!

Choose resurrection!

There really is so much to say about resurrection- about choosing the paths of life! To be honest, I can only say so much about this! So I’ll focus on taking opportunities… because although so many of us have them… there are many that don’t!

Take something from this… anything. Even if it’s just something little. Use it to remind you to live! Live well!

We do need reminders… when we’re dry bones (like the first reading from Ezekiel – remember, the valley full of dry bones, and God called Ezekiel to prophesy to them, and they came back to life!)…

…Remember the Spirit of God! Remember life in front of you! Remember the Spirit of God!

Life is way too short! Choose the path that leads out of the tomb… and into the glory of God!

God bless you!