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Enron, Easter, and Eternity

We are ready to fight for security. The one thing we all want,
whether we be aggressive and hostile and always ready to
strike out, or whether we be quiet and retiring and always
ready to run – the one thing we all are ready to fight for is
security. We need to know that our futures are solid. And
when the things on which we base our security are
threatened, we are ready to fight.

The trouble is that we’re looking at the wrong basis for
security. We have assumed that security lies in things like
bank accounts and weapons and houses and position.
These have turned out to be shaky. We have fought for all
the wrong things.

Have you heard of Enron? Enron is an energy company in
Houston; some of Enron’s executives were so invested in
financial security that they “cooked the books” to hide losses,
they conspired with other companies to create phony
partnerships, and they enticed their auditors into covering up
the truth. All that to drive up the stock price, cash out huge
profits, and then turn a blind eye as the company crashed
and burned and wiped out thousands of employees and
small investors. Enron has become an icon of greed; it is an
example of the pursuit of selfish wealth even when that
undermines the security of many other people. Enron is a
symbol of human sin that is deeper than stock prices and
broader than accounting fraud; it is a symbol of our desire to
base ourselves on things material and not on things spiritual.
Things that pass away and not on things that are eternal.

But it would be too easy to bash Enron this morning and
forget that its story is our story, too. Enron may be huge,
and you and I small, but the principle is the same. We too
fight to secure ourselves on things material. What foolish
things we do to achieve material security! And at what cost
to ourselves!

I thought about this the other day as my wife and I planned
our grocery shopping expedition. We are dyed-in-the-wool
coupon shoppers. If I have a little slip of paper that says “50
cents off” on some bottle of detergent, I have to have that
detergent! So when I see Sudso on sale, and I have a
coupon, and better yet it’s at a store that doubles coupons, I
will break the sound barrier to pick up my box of Sudso.
Never mind that I already have five boxes on the shelf.
Never mind that the store is out in Lower Slobbovia. This is
a bargain, worth fighting for! So I fight the traffic and the
crowds, and I spend a lot of time to save a couple of dollars.
I am fighting for things material, that do not matter in the end.
It’s Enronism, at my little personal level.

And it won’t let go. We have a reimbursement system here
at the church. When I go out and spend money on behalf of
the church, I can get it reimbursed when I have spent at least
$50. That’s designed to keep our treasurer from writing
innumerable little checks; I submit a list when I have spend
at least $50 for parking fees and postage and whatever, and
I will be reimbursed. But I’ve discovered that when that total
gets up to about $40 or $45, I can hardly wait until I am up to
that $50 boundary! You would think that that $50 was the
difference between bankruptcy and solvency! $48 – now
where can I find a couple more dollars in expenses so that I
can claim my check?! So I fight the calendar, I fight the
church’s policy, and I spend my energy, to have now what I
could easily wait for. I am fighting for things material, that do
not matter in the end. It’s Enronism, at my little personal
level.

But we are here today to declare that Enron has been
trumped by Easter, and that there is something better to fight
for than those things which pass away. We are here today
to learn how to fight for eternity.
I
We do well to begin by reminding ourselves of what is
perfectly obvious, and that is that earthly life, is not eternal.
There is no way we can change that. Every living thing will
ultimately wear out and die. Even the Queen Mum, whom
they thought might go on forever, finally succumbed after
101 years of hand-waving! No amount of finagling the books
or accumulating wealth or preserving strength will make us
eternal. We are going to die. And the Bible warns us that it
is very foolish indeed to suppose that we can beat that rap:

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with
contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can
take nothing out of it.

We cannot beat the rap on death if we are invested in
material things. But the power of the Easter message is that
the risen Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep .. that in
Him there is a hope toward which we can point .. and that
because of Him there is an eternity worth fighting for.

On this Remembrance Sunday, praise God that we are well
instructed in how to fight for eternity. We are instructed not
only by the word of God but also by the examples of saints
who have fought the good fight. I invite you today to peer up
into the cloud of witnesses gathered around us, and to
review how they fought, not for Enron kinds of things, but
how, empowered by their Easter faith, they fought for
eternity.
II
The Bible, having warned us that we can take nothing with
us out of the world, tells us precisely what we are to fight for.
It says:

... pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance,
gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the
eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the
good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Take that apart with me. Do we know anybody who fought
these good fights?
A
First, it says, pursue righteousness. Righteousness. Helen
Hastings was a fighter for righteousness. She fought against
Enronism, and with her Easter faith, she fought for eternity
by pursuing righteousness. Mrs. Hastings was our church’s
financial secretary; she would not countenance for one
moment the slightest deviation from careful management of
the church’s resources. I remember an occasion when one
person attempted to use church accounts to buy equipment
for himself. Mrs. Hastings dogged his footsteps, rang his
phone, pulled his chain, and got that money back. It was not
that is was her money. It was the Lord’s money, and to
attempt to take that was intolerable. Helen Hastings pursued
righteousness and so fought the good fight for eternity.
B
It goes on. Pursue righteousness and godliness. Godliness.
Carroll Reed was a fighter not only as a military man, but
also as a spiritual warrior. He fought against Enronism, and
with his Easter faith, he fought for eternity by pursuing
godliness. Major Reed fought in three armed conflicts, but
Deacon Reed fought continually to pray for others, to care for
those entrusted to his care, and to strengthen his church.
Seldom have I known anyone more devoted to the things of
Christ, or more faithful to spiritual disciplines. When I would
go to visit Carroll Reed in the hospital, I would come away
the one feeling encouraged. Carroll Reed pursued godliness
and so fought the good fight for eternity.
C
Pursue righteousness, godliness, and faith. And faith.
Margaret Waddy was a fighter who had little more than faith
to sustain her, but faith did not disappoint. She fought
against Enronism, and with her Easter faith, she fought for
eternity by pursuing faith. Margaret had become almost
destitute. Because of the way her retirement income had
been structured, she had outlived the stream of her
resources, and there was not much to go on. She sat in my
office on more than one occasion to ask me to help her look
for solutions, but she never wavered in her faith. She
believed, all the way through, that the God who had brought
from the dead our Lord Jesus was able to bring her through.
And He did. Her faith was powerful. Margaret Waddy
pursued faith and so fought the good fight for eternity.
D
The Bible goes on. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
and love. And love. What better battler for love would you
expect to find than Edward Mitchell? He fought against
Enronism, and with his Easter faith, he fought for eternity by
pursuing love. To be near Ed was to know him as a loving
and gracious heart. If you received produce from his garden;
if you got an invitation to his table; if you watched him
embrace his grandchildren; if he prayed for you – you
experienced his love. In fact, if, as I did, you heard his
disagreement or you listened to his criticism, even there, you
heard it done in love. Ed Mitchell pursued love and so fought
the good fight for eternity.
E
Keep going. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
and endurance. Endurance. Seldom have I known anyone
who would endure more than Amanda Jackson. She fought
against Enronism, and with her Easter faith, she fought for
eternity by pursuing endurance. Mrs. Jackson suffered many
times over. She suffered the loss of her husband, Matthew,
several years ago, having cared for him through an extended
illness. She suffered the loss of her son, William, a while
back, having cared for him through many years of disability.
She suffered several strokes, any one of which should have
killed her. But each time she fought her way back, and with
a radiance that endured until the very end, she stayed the
course. She demonstrated that a child of God does not give
up. Amanda Jackson pursued endurance and so fought the
good fight for eternity.
F
We’re not done yet. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, endurance, and gentleness. Yes, pursue gentleness.
The face of gentleness was the face of Lola Black. She
fought against Enronism, and with her Easter faith, she
fought for eternity by pursuing gentleness. Mrs. Black was
indeed so gentle, so self-effacing, that few of you even knew
her. But to her husband, who preceded her in death by only
three months, she was a gentle supporter. To her
daughters, who spoke with her every day, she was a gentle
encouragement. To her grandchildren, her neighbors, her
co-workers, and her friends, Lola Black offered
unquestioning hospitality, peaceful respite, and a heart that
accepted the gifts of God with quiet joy. Lola Black pursued
gentleness and so fought the good fight for eternity.
III
You see, Enron represents that grasping and greedy side of
our human nature. Enron represents our grasp for things,
but things do not last. Things disappear. But Easter trumps
Enron. The risen Christ points to something beyond here
and now. He points to eternity. It’s not worth it to fight for
things that will not last. Fight the good fight for things that
make it into eternity. This year God’s children who were
promoted to sainthood from Takoma are a cloud of
witnesses to teach us how to fight that good fight.

And more than that, they even teach us how to receive the
grace of God. They show us that confessing Christ as
Savior and Lord takes us beyond right here and right now
and points us to what is not here and not yet. Michael Keys
and Stephen Hubbard were two relatively young men who
did not live the full spectrum of years. They could not have
learned all the lessons of more mature saints. Nonetheless
they could look at their lives, they could examine their hearts,
they could know their failures, and they could still look toward
eternity. They could still know that the grace of God was
there for them too. I believe that grace following these young
men into eternity.

Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to
which you were called and for which you made the good confession
in the presence of many witnesses.

We gather today around the Lord’s Table. It seems a shaky
thing. Fragile chunks of broken bread, a few sips of wine,
and it is gone. Vanished. Yet I tell you that what we do here
is more lasting than any monument, more ample than any
bank account, more substantial than any legacy. Enrons
have fallen, but Easter is victory. And here what is earthly
becomes heavenly, what is temporary becomes permanent,
what is small becomes great, what is loss becomes gain.
Enron and its pursuit is nothing. Easter and its life is
everything. This Table is a sign of eternity.

We ought to know. We have been well instructed. We can
fight the good fight and pursue righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. And we can confess
our need of Christ in the presence of many witnesses.
Thank you, could of witnesses gathered at this Table. Thank
you, Helen and Carroll, Margaret and Ed; thank you, Amanda
and Lola. Our thanks to you, Michael and Stephen. You
taught us how to fight for eternity.