When I was about seven or eight years old my mother had the wonderful notion that I should spend summer mornings at the Gospel Lighthouse Vacation Bible School.  It was a pretty good idea.  Because at the Gospel Lighthouse Vacation Bible School I learned the virtue of biblical scholarship.  You see, at the start of every session we had a “Bible Drill” where a man stood in front of us and enthusiastically asked us questions from and about the Bible.  And if you were first to raise your hand and answered correctly, . . . you got a “Clark Bar” -- one of those kind you never dreamed of ever owning because it cost an entire nickel.  Well, I soon learned who the biblical scholars were.  There was, especially, this one fellow who knew everything there was to know about the Bible, and he had this habit:  . . . whenever a Bible question was asked, he’d whisper the answer to himself before he raised his hand.  I learned to sit in front of him . . . and raise my hand even as the fellow behind me was speaking, . . . and I was often first . . . so I’d repeat what the fellow behind me had just said to himself.  His knowledge was encyclopedic, . . . and I love “Clark Bars.”

    It was also at the Gospel Lighthouse Vacation Bible School that I learned about Heaven.  Some lady, one day, picked through the Bible from cover to cover and read passages that described Heaven:  things like, “a city in the clouds”; “streets paved with gold”; “with a temple in the midst of the city”; “the river of the water of life issuing from the temple.”  And each time our teacher read one of these passages from the Bible, she’d put a picture of what she’d read up on a felt board so we could see what was described.  I decided that Heaven is a very nice place.  So, it was at the Gospel Lighthouse Vacation Bible School that I became convinced of the worth of being a Christian; . . . of knowing all the Books of the Bible, all the Commandments of God, and everything that Jesus had said.  It not only got you a “Clark Bar”, but it’s how you get into Heaven . . . where I was persuaded that “Clark Bars” abounded everywhere you turned!

    It was not until some fourteen years later, while on an ambush patrol near the North Korean boarder, that I came face to face with the gut wrenching reality -- not just the head knowledge, mind you, but the gut wrenching evidence -- . . . that as well as knowing the Commandments of God and everything that Jesus had said . . . one thing more is required in order to get to Heaven . . . you gotta die.  Well, I had it out with God right there on the edge of a derelict rice paddy.  I had it out with God much like the Israelites at the Red Sea who looked up and saw the Egyptians rumbling toward them.  “What,” I said, “there aren’t enough graves here on earth already that you had to bring me here to fill another one?”   . . . But the Lord God’s reply to me then was what it had been to Israel:

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today . . .

Fear not . . . stand firm . . . and see the salvation of the Lord; for, Israel was a slave in Egypt . . . and God sent the Angel of Death to pass over the land . . . and Israel was free.  Israel was pursued by Pharaoh’s army with intent to kill . . . and the Red Sea parted . . . and Israel lives!  The whole house of Israel had been deported to Babylon and were as dead men without a home; as dead men in a field of bones . . . and the Lord God Almighty vowed that “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live” . . . and Israel was brought home.  Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb . . . but the tomb is empty . . . and Christ is risen!

    There are many people who flirt with Christian Faith for selfish reasons (as I did at the Gospel Lighthouse), . . . aspiring to improve themselves and their lives in some vague way.  Most are more sophisticated than I was.  Rather than a desire for “Clark Bars” they become enchanted by the great heart and humility of someone such as Mother Theresa; . . . they are inspired by the cheerful generosity and courage of someone like John Paul II, . . . and they say to me, “Father, Christianity is such a wonderfully humane belief system;  . . . the only thing wrong with it is that I simply cannot believe in the Resurrection.”  They desire that the Christian Faith should help them make a difference, . . . but think they must die in order to go to Heaven; . . . they desire the Christian Faith to make a difference in their lives, . . . but will not believe that Christ desires to make them different.  . . . They have enough schooling to know everything, but not enough trust to be awed by what they know.  There is no awe that Ribonucleic Acids can organize themselves into a baby.  There is no awe that a Robin, hatched in the Butternut Valley, goes South for the Winter and returns to the Butternut Valley in the Spring, rather than wandering aimlessly.  There is no awe, I guess, because there is too much fear.  Humanity, like the Israelites, finds itself caught between hard men and unyielding nature . . . and we are afraid.  We are trapped between impassable waters and implacable men . . . and find it easier to believe in the inevitability of death and to blame God for it . . . rather than to entrust ourselves to the Author and Surety of Life.  For, it seems better, I guess, to go to the grave saying, “I expected no better” . . . than to fling one’s self into the abyss with joyful hope that God will catch us.

    But, you see, the reason why, ten years ago, Mother Theresa, for instance, broke her collarbone getting out of bed in order to lift one more child out of the gutter . . . when everyone knows that frail old ladies ought to lie abed; . . . the reason why Mother Theresa had her heart set on keeping to her rhythm of prayer and merciful works . . . is because, for her, injury was not a consequence of life to be avoided nor was the incapacity of old age something to which we submit.  Mother Theresa was great hearted and humble and self-forgetful because Christ is risen!   And

“all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death [so that] . . . if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Because Christ is risen, we who have been drowned in the baptismal pool, if we live at all, it is God’s life that is in us.  Therefore, we live no longer for ourselves, but are alive to God in Christ Jesus.  . . . And so, if you want to be a Christian; . . . if you want Christ to make a difference in your life so that you can have the heart and fortitude of a saint, . . . then stand firm and see the salvation of God!  . . . Because you don’t have to die in order to experience Heaven.  All you have to do is open your heart and soul, as well as your eyes, . . . and see Jesus standing before you in this very Place . . . saying, . . . “Do not be afraid.”  Alleluia!