Life is ...

A Sermon Discussion by Nada Sellers & Pat Koons

Memorial Day
May 28, 2005

Read aloud, alternating preachers:

Life is like a box of chocolates …  Forrest Gump
If life is like a bowl of cherries, why am I stuck with the pits?  Erma Bombeck
Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!     Paul Gauguin
What is life, but a series of inspired follies?    George Bernard Shaw
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.    Aristotle
Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Anais Nin
Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. Charlotte Bronte
Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.  Carl Sandburg
Life is just one damned thing after another.     Elbert Hubbard
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.  Emily Dickinson
Life is suffering.  the Buddha
Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.  George Santayana
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.  John Lennon

This is Memorial Day weekend, a time when our nation pauses to remember and to honor those whose lives were lost while serving in the military and fighting to protect and preserve this country.

There are flags, and flowers, ceremonies and speeches, families left with pictures and memories, buddies stricken with memories and scars.

Sometimes we are told that soldiers die in order to "protect our way of life;" sometimes they are "protecting our freedoms" or our rights; rights such as "life, love and the pursuit of happiness."  What is life really all about?  What is it that we celebrate as Christian believers?

We'd like to engage in a discussion about life and its pursuits this morning, because Jesus had a lot to say about life.  In fact, Jesus was very clear in promising to change lives NOW with consequences for the here and now, as well as for eternity.

Let's start by shifting into 2 discussion groups.  In your groups, you'll have access to a number of quotes about life, and as you select them, one by one, I'd like you to discuss their claims or their message.  What point are they trying to make about life?  What's their perspective, and why do you suppose they feel this way?  Do you agree or disagree?

After a number of quotes and minutes to discuss, we'll join each group and offer the next step in our process.

NEXT STEP:  Join each, and offer:
Now, take some time with your group members, to write a joint statement about life.  See if you can come to a consensus, and pick one member who will be able to share it with the group when we're back together again!:

"Life is….." 

NEXT STEP:
          Have 2 groups comment on experience and statements they came up with.  Why?

RETURN FROM GROUPS: 

"I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  John 10:9-10

What does this mean?  In this section of parables, Jesus is both the gate or door to the stable, as well as the shepherd; this gate for the sheep in a gate leading to salvation.  All pass through the gate that is Jesus, in order to be saved -- Jesus has come to bring life to the sheep!

Furthermore, notice the theme of vs. 9 -- those who go in and out through the gate that is Jesus find pasture… Jesus offers supplies of living water and bread of life in John, but now, he offers the pasture of life -- what Jesus is really talking about here is the fullness of life.  Rather than the evil One who comes to destroy, Jesus is described as the One God gave, in order that those who believe in him "may not be destroyed but have eternal life."  3:18

Life in Jesus is "abundant life," and here in John, life is one of the writer's main concepts: it is used 36 times in the gospel of John, whereas no other New Testament writing has it more than 17 times (Revelation). (Bruce, p.82)  For John, life usually refers to eternal life - life does not exist on its own merits; not by or through the Word, but it exists "in Jesus." 

What might abundance mean?  Abundance that will be experienced in eternity OR abundance now?

Word here is present tense, subjunctive: more than is really necessary, "have it to the full," "to have a surplus." (Linguistic Key,  Rienecker/Rogers)

Have you known someone who lives "abundantly?"

When have you experienced God's abundance?

Discuss…

We started out with discussion about life -- and come to find that in Jesus, life isn't about chance. Nor is it about beating the odds, or avoiding the messiness or the difficulties.

Try filling in the blanks on this one:

                    In the light of Jesus, life now is ...