Say yes, and bring Easter life to those around you

Remember door to door salesmen?

They’d ring the bell and try to sell you

something.

Talk about persistent.

In fact, it was their tenacity that led to the

saying: getting a foot in the door.

They’d put their foot in the door so that the

homeowner could not close it and would have to listen to them.

Today’s telemarketers equally show that stick

to-it-tiveness.

Hesitate even for a second, and off they go with

their spiel.

They just won’t take no for an answer.

God must have taken a lesson from those salesmen and telemarketers.

Because God is persistent.

God has bull dog tenaciousness.

God simply won’t take no for an answer.

I know.

I am Lydia.

Lydia from the Acts of the Apostles.

There I was, sitting by the river in Phillippi.

I was a Roman.

We had a different god for everything.

You know, there was a god for the harvest, a

god for love, a god for this and a god for that.

I just didn’t quite get all those gods and so to tell

you the truth, I had started going to those gatherings held by Jews.

I had heard about their one God and their ten

commandments and I liked the way they lived their lives.

But because the Jews weren’t like by Rome,

they could not have an official building, so we met down by the river.

On this one particular day, we were having a

guest preacher: a man named Paul.

Paul was going on and on about someone named

Jesus.

Jesus, he said was a man who would not take no

for an answer.

When a village started to stone a woman and to

say “No sinners allowed”, Jesus stepped between the angry mob and the woman.

Jesus said, “Yes sinners are allowed. They are

for whom I came to tell about God. Let anyone who is without sin, throw the first stone.”

Do you know that not one person threw a stone.

The whole town put the rocks they had in their

hands on the ground and walked away.

All those signs that say No eating with tax

collectors, Jesus sprayed painted over.

They now read: Yes eat with those tax

collectors.

Jesus would not accept the rule that no sick

people were allowed to be around.

Why he walked right up to lepers, the lame, and

the blind.

He even touched a couple of dead

people.

There were absolutely no NOS where Jesus was

concerned.

Then Paul told us the most remarkable thing.

God too would not take no for an answer.

For you see, the world said no to Jesus.

The Roman government said no to Jesus.

The Jewish rulers said no to Jesus.

They all said NO and they crucified Jesus.

They put him on a cross and killed him.

Then they put him in a grave and sealed it up

good and tight.

No Jesus for us…No No NO!!!

God said, “That’s what you think.”

God reached down and moved that stone.

God resurrected Jesus.

God gave Jesus a special everlasting life.

A life that is shared with all who believe.

And because we share this life of Jesus’ we do

not have to fear evil, because it doesn’t have the last say.

We don’t have to worry about death, because

death is not the end.

We will live with Jesus in heaven.

All because God would not take no for an

answer.

Well, as Paul was talking, I swear God reached

down into my heart and opened it.

I got what Paul was saying.

It felt as if he was speaking those words to

me…sure other people were around, but it felt as if time was suspended and Paul was looking me right in the eyes and saying Lydia, God sent me here to tell you this story about Jesus.

Lydia, Jesus loves you when you are less than

perfect.

Lydia, Jesus loves you even when you make

mistakes.

Lydia, Jesus loves you now and always.”

I got so excited.

I got goose bumps all over.

I jumped up.

I said, “Paul, Paul, Baptize me.

Make me a Christian.

I want to follow Jesus.

I’m not going to take no for an answer.”

A whole bunch of people must have felt the

same way, because Paul ended up leading a an entire crowd down to the river and all of us were baptized.

There in the water my life changed.

If God loved me that much that God wasn’t

going to let anything come between God and me, I had to do something.

I had to change the way I lived.

I had to show my faith in everything I did.

I had to show that this preaching, this baptism

had made a difference.

I got what Paul was saying: when the world

says no, God say yes.

So I started right there living that way.

Water was dripping off me.

My teeth were chattering.

“Paul.” I said, “It’s getting late.

Come over to my house and stay the night.

I’ll fix dinner.”

Guess what Paul said.

He said “No. We can’t.”

“Why,” I said:

“Well, we are a large group. It’s last minute.

We would not want to put you out.”

Well, if I had learned anything from this guy’s

sermon it was that God responds to the nos with yeses and a persistence that not even a sealed grave can stop and so I asked again:

“Paul come over to my house.”

Can you believe that Paul said no again.

Baptism made me just like Christ.

I was going to be just like Christ and God.

When everyone around you is saying no that

can’t be done, God sees a way.

And just like God, I was not going to take no for

an answer..

And I didn’t…

Well don’t you know we had a great

dinner…me, my family, and sitting right next to me, was Paul.

I know what you’re going to say.

Lydia you were a little annoying.

Maybe too headstrong.

Sometimes Lydia you have to accept no.

Sometimes Lydia you have to resolve yourself

that there is nothing more that can be done.

You have to let no sometimes rule your life and

decisions.

For instance, we are all busy.

We can’t fit anything more into our schedules.

We have to say no to volunteering at a soup

Kitchen or staying for Bible study.

Gas prices are soaring and taking more and more

out of our wallets, we have to say no to putting more in the collection plate.

Sometime Lydia we have no time, no

experience, no desire and we have to say no.

Friends, I hear you, I really do.

But Christ has taught me over and over again

that when the word NO comes off of our lips we are denying Christ into our lives.

We have been called into the various

communities in our lives: the communities of our families, of our workplace, of this church, of the different organizations we belong to.

We are called there by God, and God knows that

there is something that we have, that only we have, that can make these communities live in God’s love.

No matter the community: from a poor working

situation to an ailing nation.

When we say yes, we bring Easter life to those

around us.

By saying no, we turn our back on Christ and

life.

We simply fail to live out our baptismal vows

when we utter the word no.

No…I won’t seek and serve Christ in all

persons, no I do not respect the dignity of all human beings, no I will not continue in the Apostle’s teaching and fellowship.

It is so much easier to live no…in fact it

becomes a way of life.

I heard about a man who felt that he had to say

no.

In fact he had fallen into quite a habit of it.

The man was the Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller.

He was busy.

There was no time in his schedule.

He was after all on a whirlwind book promotion

tour which had him visiting 8 cities in 4 days.

That was exhausting by itself, but then add his

responsibilities as a pastor of a church.

There was no time for anything extra.

Simply no.

One day he was going over his schedule with his

secretary.

She reminded him that he was having lunch with

the winner of a charity raffle that day.

Rev Schuller said, “I can’t. Let’s reschedule. I

have too much to do. I had better say no.”

The secretary said ok but I think you better take

a look at who it is who won the raffle.

She handed him a piece of paper with the

winner’s name on it.

He read the name in disbelief.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

He happened to know that the 500 dollars that

the person bid to have lunch with him represented that person’s entire life savings.

How did he know that?

The person who had spent the 500 dollars was

his own daughter.

She had spent everything she had to be with her

father.

He had been busy, couldn’t say yes.

She wasn’t going to take no for an answer

anymore.

Look.

Life is busy and full.

And these are hard economic times.

But when we say no we deny ourselves the

chance to live in Christ.

We deny ourselves the opportunity to deepen

our relationship with God.

God gave everything to be with us.

God would not take no for an answer.

Let us not settle for no.

Today we honor three people who stopped

saying no to God.

Crystal, Matthew, and Sandra.

The three of them made a commitment

yesterday.

A commitment to say yes to God.

That promise came after living that way.

Yesterday was just the icing on the cake.

Crystal felt God’s call several years ago and has

worked diligently towards the goal of confirmation.

She responded to the request for Sunday School

teachers not by saying no but by saying yes.

Yes I’ll do it, despite my age, yes I’ll do it

despite my inexperience, yes I’ll teach Sunday School despite being a high school student involved in a host of activities.

Crystal said yes.

And she has shown up every Sunday prepared

and raring to go.

Matthew, too, would not accept no.

Faithfully and with a smile on his face and a wit

about him, he accomplished the tasks required for confirmation.

Everything from sleeping overnight amidst

cardboard shanties to rising early to be at class.

No was not part of his vocabulary.

He said yes I want to be confirmed despite play

offs for basketball and spring training, yes to confirmation despite band competitions and being a teenager, and Matthew said yes despite being in a class with all women.

He saw the possibilities that yes opens up for us

all.

Sandra said yes and jumped right in, offering her

gifts to the community in which God has called her.

From altar guild to office support and everything

in between.

Sandra was not going to take no for an answer

despite being new or not knowing a thing about a paten, burse, or pall.

Sandra say yes, yes and yes, offering herself and

her heart.

Crystal, Matthew, and Sandra have been an

inspiration to me.

They have shown that by saying yes, even when

they would have rather have said no, even when logic said no, they showed that by saying yes life in Christ comes.

No sets up barriers and is ultimately life

depriving, yes opens up Easter and makes is accessible in everyday life.

No stops us making it impossible to reach

beyond, yes lets us go places we could never

imagine.

Let us follow in the footsteps of Crystal,

Matthew, and Sandra.

Following their Lord and Savior, They did not

take no for an answer.

For Christ didn’t take no for an answer.

God didn’t take no for answer.

Let us not today, not tomorrow, not ever be

shackled by that one little word.

Let us step into Easter, living our lives in the

fullness that yes brings and let us never take no for an answer.

The Reverend Michele L. Matott 5/13/07 won’t take no for an answer