What Comes Down Will Go Up

March 27, 2012

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

This July 2nd marks the thirtieth anniversary of a bizarre event in the history of human aviation. In 1982, 33-year old truck driver Larry Walters attempted to fulfill a lifelong dream. Poor eyesight had prevented his childhood goal of joining the Air Force and eventually becoming a space shuttle astronaut. But that did not keep him from making plans to soar among the clouds.


WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN

His plan began with constructing his own aircraft in his girlfriend’s home near Los Angeles. He went to his local Sears store and purchased a cockpit chair, in the form of the sturdiest lawn chair he could find. Then he went to a nearby army surplus store and picked up some rope, a tank of helium, and forty-five large, industrial-sized weather balloons.

On the day of his launch, he secured the lawn chair to the ground with several lengths of rope, inflated each of the weather balloons, tied them to his chair, and sat down with a sack full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a six-pack of beer. Oh, and he had his BB gun. His plan was simple: take the aircraft into the air, hover a bit above the treetops for a few hours, and use the BB gun to shoot the balloons, one by one, until he could safely and gently descend back to earth.

Foolproof plan.

With a crowd of friends watching, a sack of sandwiches, a supply of beer, and a trusty BB gun at his side, Larry Walters cut the rope securing his chair to the ground. The newspaper the next day described what ensued as Larry being “shot up into the LA sky like being shot out of a cannon.”

Rather than traveling 30 feet into the air, Larry quickly ascended to 16,000 feet. In the process of being shot up that quickly, his eyeglasses flew off his face, rendering him essentially blind. He suddenly learned two things about high altitudes. First, one is subject to prevailing winds. His homemade dirigible swept across the greater Los Angeles area, into the airspace of LAX International Airport, and towards the Pacific Ocean. Second, he discovered that at 16,000 feet, one gets awfully cold, a lesson that he realized when he reached for his shotgun to begin bursting balloons. With his fingers numb from the freezing temperatures, he dropped the gun.

His aircraft caught the attention of several TWA, Delta, and Pan Am airplane pilots in the sky, and a rescue helicopter was dispatched that could do little more than follow him around. Eventually, after several hours, Larry Walters and his deck chair did come down, in Long Beach, California, tangled amid several power lines in a local neighborhood. When he hopped down from the power lines, he landed right into the hands of law enforcement officers, who arrested him for numerous violations, including trespassing LAX airspace and knocking out power in the greater Long Beach area.

The New York Times reported on Larry’s antics the following day, and reporters asked him three questions:

1. "Were you scared?" Yes, said Larry.
2. “Are you going to do it again?" No, he said.
3. "What in the world made you do it?" Larry gave an answer that only guys like Larry Walters could appreciate. “Because,” he said, “A guy can’t just sit around and do nothing.” He was a guy’s guy, that Larry Walters.
   

He learned the hard way that what goes up must come down, a lesson underscored by John’s gospel in chapter 20, and the words of Jesus during the last week of his life. Except Jesus would have said it this way...


“WHAT COMES DOWN WILL EVENTUALLY RISE UP”

Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem coincided with the festival observance, and an international crowd gathered to hear Jesus declare, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” The disciples of Jesus had to be downright giddy at these words. It was Jesus’ moment to shine, to ascend to power, to assume the throne, and to take the disciples with him. It was time for Jesus to rise up.

Except….

Except Jesus then said something that utterly shocked the disciples, surprises the reader, and turns conventional wisdom on its ear. He knew full well that if one seeks to rise up, one will only tumble down. So he said, Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Can’t you hear the disciples say, “Excuse me, Jesus? I beg your pardon? That doesn’t make sense!” Everyone knows that if you want to be great, you have to climb the ladder of success! You have to be better than the other guy! You have to sink the competition! You have to look out for yourself! What is this nonsense about going down and falling to the earth in order to be great?

But that’s exactly what Jesus said. If you want to be great, you have to descend. To go up, you have to come down. You have to descend into greatness.

If the New York Times were there covering this story, they might ask him the exact same questions:

1. “Jesus, are you scared?” Yes, he said, in verse 27: “Now my soul is troubled.” But then he went further: “And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” He was scared, but he was undeterred.
2. “Jesus, why are you doing it?” “To glorify God,” he said in verse 28. Jesus knew that no fear of death, no risk of failure, no anxiety about the future, was more important than his central task: Glorifying God, and leading others to realize God’s love for them.
3. “Jesus, would you do it again?” Yes, over and over again. Verse 28: “Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’”
   

Larry Walters learned the hard way that what goes up will eventually come tumbling to the ground. Yet that’s the way the world would want you to live, seeking yourself and your own needs before others. But Jesus put it differently. If you want to rise up, you must first come down. Down in the form of a servant. Down in the spirit of self-sacrifice. Down in sharing God’s love with others.

As we begin Holy Week this Sunday, God is calling each of us to live in the example of Christ, and to engage the challenge of the cross. It is the challenge to live for God and for the sake of others, rather than for yourself. A challenge to serve the church with energy and vitality, rather than leaving others to do the work you are uniquely equipped to perform. A challenge to surrender to God, getting rid of the habits, sins, and obstacles to grace that have plagued you for so long. A challenge to tell others about Jesus, telling them of God’s love for them, that their lives might be transformed just like yours. A challenge to humble yourself before God so that you can be like a grain of wheat, falling to earth, and rising up to bear fruit.

The challenge is yours if you will seize it. And these same questions are for you:

1. Are you scared? Of course we are. It is scary to take risks, scary to get out of our comfort zones, and scary to tell others about Jesus. But remember: “it is for this reason that we have come to this hour.” This is our purpose, to give our lives to God and service to other people.
2. Why do we do it? Just like Jesus, to glorify God. Nothing is more important in our lives, for we are part of something grander and greater than anything else in the world.
3. Should you do it again? Yes, yes, and yes. Not just once. Not just during Lent, and not only on Easter. But over and over again, practice the law of love and self-sacrifice in our life, and make it a consistent pattern of your discipleship. Seize the challenge, over and over again.
   

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org



FIRE RECOVERY UPDATE

Sanctuary – Grundman Hicks began building scaffolding last Wednesday, a process which will take most of this week to complete. ServiceMaster will then begin cleaning the walls, followed by a complete repainting by the company in Dubuque who did the prior painting. Care will be taken to ensure that all the gold leaf on the ceiling will be preserved, as it does not appear that they will need to be redone. Grundman Hicks will also repatch the part of the ceiling in the southwest corner damaged by a leaky roof several years ago. In addition, a piano and organ cleaning professional arrived last Wednesday out of Sioux City was able to clean both instruments on site.

Kitchen and Dining Hall – Grundman Hicks did an amazing job last week thoroughly clearing out the debris and items from the kitchen and dining hall. All items have been removed and the areas have been stripped down to the walls. The entire east wall of the kitchen, the part including the service windows, has been completely removed, for possible expansion of the future kitchen. An environmental engineer in Des Moines determined on Friday that there is no asbestos in the walls and ceiling, so removal of all lath and plaster began yesterday. An asbestos abatement company arrives today (Tuesday) to begin removal of the floor tile and the stage. A structural engineer arrived yesterday and determined that there is no damage to the structural integrity of the sanctuary floor. Finally, the architect came last Friday to take pictures of the cleared kitchen and dining hall to make further adjustments to the design plans.


HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE
We will be having our normal Holy Week schedule of services at the Community Center, with the exception of Maundy Thursday, which we will suspend for this year.
Palm Sunday, April 1, 10:10 am
Good Friday, April 6, 7:00 pm
Easter Morning, April 8, Identical Services at 7:00 am and 10:10 am
Youth Easter Brunch, in the upstairs Community Center, from 8:00 to 10:00 am.