The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Washing Windows

Act 9:1-22

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

April 25, 2004

Now that the baskets have been put away for another year and the eggs have all been found, I think it’s fare to ask how we’re supposed to live in response to the Easter message. How do we live in response to God loving us, God forgiving us, God extending to us the promise of a better life following this earthly life? How do we live as an Easter people? How do we live as Christians?

Well first of all, Christians live joyfully. Not that we’re laughing all the time. We know sometimes life can be difficult. But nevertheless we face the future with joy and hope. We are not pessimistic about the human race or defeatest in the face of evil. We are optimistic, we are joyful, because we know God’s love is stronger than our sin.

Christians also live extravagantly. We don’t hide God’s blessings. Instead we share them all over the place. Christianity means sharing our time, our energy, our money with people who appreciate it and people who don’t because we know they are not ours in the first place. Whatever skills, abilities, finances, powers we have we know we didn’t earn. God gave them to us and our greatest joy is sharing them with others.

And finally, Christians live peacefully. We don’t seek revenge because having our sins forgiven means we can forgive other people’s sins against us. Fighting and feuding and arguing are not for us because the Prince of Peace has shown us a better way to live.

In response to God’s extravagant love in Jesus Christ, we live solid, stable lives grounded in joy, extravagance and peace. That is our Christian response to Easter.

And yet sometimes Christianity feels very ungrounded. This last Tuesday I saw some window-washers working on the Sun Trust building across the street from us. There they were, a couple of hundred feet up, hanging by a rope, largely ignored by the people inside, the ones they were helping.

And when God spoke to Ananias and told him to go lay hands on Paul, I’ll bet he felt the solid, stable ground slip away. I’ll bet he felt a whole lot like a window washer dangling high up, blowing in the wind, hanging from a mere thread of a rope.

Now remember the story. Here comes Saul, breathing fire and murder, threatening jail and horrible tortures for anyone claiming to follow Jesus. Paul is the torture squad. He’s the guy knocking on your door in the middle of the night and you’re never seen again. If Paul has you in his sights you are “disappeared” and that’s a fact. And Ananias knows it.

But on his way to Damascus with his lynch mob Saul is struck by a strong light. He falls to the ground. Jesus speaks to him. And next thing you know he’s blind. For a guy who’s always been certain of his world view that blindness must have been horribly disorienting.

But Ananias doesn’t know any of this. All he knows is the Paul of the death squad. Can’t you hear him talking back to God? You want me to do what? With who? And God says, “Yes! Yes, I do.” And Ananias goes and does it.

Now notice something interesting here. God is perfectly capable of giving Saul sight without any help from Ananias. But God chooses not to. Saul’s vision is made complete through human interaction. In fact, it’s made complete through reluctant human interaction.

Ananias doesn’t perceive the divine logic working here any more than we always perceive the divine logic working in what God wants us to do. “God, you want me to invite the office curmudgeon to help serve lunch on Wednesday? God, you want me to extend an olive branch to that person who’s been picking on me for years? God, you want me to give all of my raise to help spread your good news?”

And God says “Yes! Yes, I do.”

We don’t always perceive the logic in what God is doing, but nevertheless God chooses to work through us. God chooses to work through human instruments to accomplish the divine purpose. And sometimes we may feel like window washers – out on a ledge, dangling from a rope, largely ignored by the people we are helping but nevertheless extremely important to them.

The reason I noticed the window washers at all was because I was in the church kitchen and suddenly I heard this tremendous racket, this huge shouting outside. I went and looked and there must have been over 100 elementary-school children sitting on the steps of the church waiting to go in for a tour. The children were hollering up at the window washers and when the washers heard them and looked down and waved you’ve never seen so many excited children. They were jumping up and down and having the time of their lives. And you could tell the window washers were having a great time too. They were waving and leaning way out from the side of the building showing off.

You and I may never find ourselves being cheered by 100 elementary-school children, but our ministry of tithing and giving generously to God’s work, our ministry of the Wednesday lunch and the Sunday breakfast, our ministry of cooking for the film series or being a lay leader or singing in the choir, our ministry of a kind word or a friendly note, a casserole dropped off, our ministry of patting someone on the back and offering an encouraging word, our ministry of whatever it is God gives us to do, our ministry is important. God is honoring us by choosing to minister through us instead of doing it all on God’s own.

Now sometimes we don’t want to clean that person’s spiritual windows. We like them being blind. They’ve been breathing fire and threatening murder against us. We don’t want any scales falling from their eyes.

But God has a ministry plan for that person. You and I might not perceive the logic of God’s choice. But we can be sure it makes perfect sense to God.

My friends, the Christian life is a solid, stable life of joy, extravagance and peace. Sometimes things happen, we find ourselves ministering to people we just don’t understand. But God will not leave us dangling from a rope, blowing in the wind.

So go ahead. Don’t be afraid. Wash their windows, wipe their scales away, help others see what you’ve seen: God loves us, God has forgiven us, God is offering us eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God. Amen.