May
my words be in the Name of the Holy & Undivided Trinity: +
Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.
When
I was in the army I went to 'jump school'.
Jump school is where you learn how to jump out of perfectly good
airplanes while they are up in the sky. As you can imagine, there
was a certain amount of grim humour used in such a place – after
all, we were learning how to do something where the slightest mistake
could lead to a sudden and spectacularly messy death. For example, I
remember one of the instructors explaining to us what to do when we
exited the aircraft.
'The
first thing you're going to want to do,' he said. 'Is check that your
parachute has deployed properly. Because if it is hasn't, you're
going to need to use that reserve chute strapped to your chest. And
soldiers – you have the rest of your airborne life to get it to
work.'
He
paused for a moment to complete silence. We were going to be exiting
the aircraft at about 1000 feet. At that height, without a working
parachute, you had about 10 seconds if you were lucky before you hit
the ground.
Of
course, whether we have ten seconds left to our lives, or 100 years,
all our lives will end sometime. And we all have however much time we
have left to get something right – something much more important
that a parachute – we have to get things right with God.
We
all of course get things wrong … and we all hope to be forgiven …
but we all know as well that sometimes the chance for forgiveness may
pass … think about our Old Testament reading today, from Genesis
about Noah. Think of the flood … we may be sure that all the people
who were not on the ark had plenty of time to change their ways and
repent … in fact, it's quite likely that Noah himself told them …
how likely is it that people didn't ask him what he was up to all
those years he was building such a huge ark? And how likely is it
that a good man like Noah wouldn't have told them the truth? But they
wouldn't listen … and the time came when it was too late …
We
can all understand what it means to be too late … I'm sure the
children among us can all remember some favourite toy that their
parents told them to be careful of or they would break it … but
they didn't listen, and it did indeed break, and then all the tears
and sadness couldn't make it right. The same kind of thing happens to
grown-ups. Think of something as simple as not using your mobile
phone when driving. The government had a big campaign last, warning
people that the gardai would be out in force, looking for people who
were breaking that law … and yet within a few hours of the
crackdown beginning, they had caught hundreds driving with their
phone in their hands … they didn't listen to the warnings … and
at last it was too late … and all the pleading with the man or
woman in blue at the side of the road couldn't change anything.
But
of course I'm sure there were lots of people on their mobile phones
in their cars over the last few days who didn't get caught. They got
lucky. No being pulled over, no fines, no penalty points on their
licence, no increase in what they have to pay for their insurance for
not obeying the rules of the road. They got away with it – this
time at least. But with God there is no getting away with it; he
knows all the things we have done wrong. Luckily for us, when the
time comes for us to stand before him, it doesn't have to be the case
that the penalties and fines for all the wrong we have done all
through our lives are waiting for us to pay them … because Christ
has already paid it all in full for us …by dying for our sins he
opened the door for each and everyone of to get into right
relationship with God … It
is not automatic, of course. We have to ask God's forgiveness and
change our ways so that we live according to the way his Son taught
us.
And
when should we do that? Right now. Leaving it to the last minute is
not a good idea. Because most of us will never know when that last
minute will be. And if it does come upon you suddenly, you may well
be too busy to think about repenting. Let me give you an example …
On one of my parachute jumps I got things badly wrong and was
steering my chute with the wind instead of against it; that meant I
speeded up instead of slowing down … so instead of coming down
gently, I slammed into the ground at around 30 miles an hour …
luckily, about two seconds before I hit the ground I realised what I
had done and I made up for my mistake by doing as near perfect a
parachute landing fall as I could … the result was that I was
pretty much a walking bruise, but I was otherwise uninjured … I
could have been killed … but that didn't even occur to me until
afterwards …
I truly believe that when death comes upon us
suddenly, most don't actually think they're going to die … which
means there are no last second thoughts of repentance … there
certainly wasn't in my case. Far better, I think, to ask forgiveness
while there is time and then live the rest of your life as if there
might never be chance to ask for forgiveness again. That is how I
pray you all will live. Amen.