The last word

A few weeks ago I told a story from the pulpit about a conversation I had overheard at the barbershop, the story of a stressed-out mom, who, like Jesus' friend Martha, was "worried and upset about many things."

I went to a different strip mall hair cutting place yesterday and as she was cutting my hair, the young 20-something stylist began to tell me about how proud she was of her mother who was learning to text-message with her cell phone.

"I love texting," she told me. "I like it because you don't have to listen to what the other person says."

"My mom," she said, "always needs to get in the last word. When I text her, she can't get the last word. Of course, now that I've taught her how to do it, she'll text me the last word."

I've been thinking about getting the last word. I think a lot of us are like my hair cutter when it comes to our relationship with God. We like to send him messages, usually "give me that" or "I need this," but don't really want to hear what he has to say.

I suppose God could have text messaged the gospel, but then it wouldn't have been good news. Instead, he decided to have a conversation, eye to eye, face to face. He sent his Son to live among us and with us, to talk and to listen. He bore our sorrows and invited us into his rest, but he also told us to live lives of radical obedience and called us to task for our hypocrisy and self-righteousness. "Whitewashed tombs," he called us.

We grew tired of hearing his words and so we arranged to have him silenced, put to death, even death on a cross.

Then there was silence, cold, dark, deafening silence. We didn't think we could survive such silence. But the conversation was not over. We could not silence the Lord of Life. Death's victory did not last long. When the women came to the tomb very early on the first day, they found the stone rolled away and were told not to look for the living among the dead. When the men of Emmaus arrived back in Jerusalem that night, they were told what they already knew, "The Lord is risen indeed."

Jesus got the last word. Matthew tells us that his last words were, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Luke remembers him saying, "I am going to send you what my Father promised."

He is with us and he did send the Spirit promised by the Father. The conversation continues. He still talks with us and listens to us. He bears our sorrows and invites us into his rest. And he tells us to live lives of radical obedience and calls us to task for our hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

I suppose God could have text messaged the gospel, but then it wouldn't have been good news.