I hope that you are carrying a photo today. Most of us carry a picture of family or some special time of our life. Now is there
anyone here who took a large picture and cut off half of it and you are carrying just half a picture? When you stop to think about it, every photo is half a picture. Even if you go to a 
professional, they place you in front of two columns and some cloth and it looks like you are the owner of a mansion, and
then they get the camera close enough to make sure that no one sees the studio.
I worked with many refugees in my years in Buffalo and many people wanted to send a message back home that they had succeeded. So they would find a terrific car parked on the street and stand next to it for a picture and send the picture home to say, I have already bought a car and made my start. As a matter of fact, when your child moves to another city and sends home a picture of the car, tell him to actually get into the car and send one more picture.
Thomas Kuhn was fascinated with how we live our lives in pictures. Life is so complex that we simplify it by drawing a frame. That frame cuts out anything that we consider inconvenient. He applies this idea to science. Before Galileo, all scientists believed that the sun and planets rotated around the earth. It was part of their Christian faith. Since they were looking at half a picture, they kept making additional theories to explain why the planets did not seem to travel as though they were going around the earth. Finally Galilee came along and smashed the frame. He was the first to say, this is not a situation where you need one small additional detail, your frame is wrong and your picture is wrong and you need a larger picture that shows the planets around the sun.
Most advances in understanding have not come from someone adding to knowledge. Einstein, Newton in science came along and smashed the old frame and said you basically don’t understand the picture of mass and energy. Mohammed and Buddha are compelling in religion because they offered a bigger picture than people had before. Gandhi and King did the same in politics with the idea of non violent protest. These are all ideas that suddenly rip an old frame apart and give people a new and larger picture.
Today, we will read a passage in Luke where a rich man begs Lazarus to send Moses back from heaven to tell his five brothers how to avoid hell. Lazarus says, I know those guys and no miracle will get them to change. We’re going to look today at what makes people change. If you are wondering where God fits into life, this is a wonderful passage of hope. And as we approach this election, we see that many Christians are coming with a small frame that doesn’t offer anything evangelistically to our hurting world. We’ll look at how we can be a witness. Let’s worship.
Lazarus tells us that the five brothers will not change even if God sends them a miraculous event. And maybe we can understand that. Christian speakers tell us that God wants us to follow them. We hear testimonies good and bad. I am telling you what God wants. The Mormons are meeting you on 37th. I was just offered 5 million for the church by an unknown person of wealth on email yesterday. Sometimes it is hard to know what fact would get us to make a new commitment to God. Someone could really walk in here and say, I am Moses and I have been raised from the dead, and I am not sure what we would do with that. What would the real Moses have to do to get your attention?
Thomas Kuhn says that our beliefs tell us which facts are important. If you don’t believe in miracles, then no one will ever be able to tell you a miracle story. If you hear one, you will try to imagine circumstances that explain the story in some other way. Kuhn says that the only way that change happens in science is that people get so frustrated with the old way of thinking and all the things it doesn’t explain, that one day they smash the old frame and pick up a new set of beliefs that seem to explain life more completely. It is not a quiet process. It is not an easy process. It is a violent process. Galileo was branded a heretic. In 1633, he was ordered to stay in his house for the rest of his life. Today, type into Google Martin Luther King communist and you will come up with a host of sites that accuse him of communism, sedition, and fraud.
In the book of John, [John 3:4] Nicodemus said to Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" [John 3:5] Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. [John 3:6] What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. [John 3:7] Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'
I have been present at the birth of three children and the labor in our first child went on all day. It was not subtle or reflective – it was exhausting and difficult. And that is how a lot of spiritual change comes. There is process and what Eugene Peterson calls the Long Obedience in the Same Direction. But there is also crisis where you smash the old frame in frustration and take on major new beliefs because they explain your life more than anything you ever knew before.
Our nation needs a new frame. We have allowed bad leadership to draw us into a war that was never justified on Christian principles. And Christians ought to use this time to call our friends and neighbors to see what the gospel offers as they evaluate the candidates. The National Council of Churches has prepared 10 principles that Christians should hold up including, Luke 1 – By the tender mercies of God, we are guided in the ways of peace, Luke 4 – The spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor,
Respect for Cultures – Acts 2 we hear the good news of God’s power this day in our own language, Romans 3 on prison and punishment, For there is none righteous, no not one. On Education of our youth – Suffer the little children to come unto me, Environment – Romans 8 – Creation must be set free from its bondage to decay.
Friends, we are allowing Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to take a big picture of God’s will and grace and shrink it down to a debate on one man one woman, low taxes, and gun ownership as the Christian positions. That is why we have disagreement among big sections of the Christian community in the US. I believe that they have accepted a small frame of the Bible that comes out of their political beliefs. They cannot accept these other scriptures because it doesn’t fit a certain political thesis.
Friends, let us be United Methodist Christians. It is a bigger frame. And this is a
gospel which would offer new promise to the world. This gospel is exciting. And notice that I believe that Christians should focus on the gospel, not the 
election of a candidate. If this appears to benefit John Kerry’s campaign so be it. But the gospel in a pluralistic society will never fit any campaign
perfectly. Our task as Christians is to be ministers of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5.
We actually have words to say that give hope in the midst of war, respect in the presence of racism, justice in the homes of the poor, education for the potential of youth, restoration for those in crime, and glory in the renewal of creation. This is news to shout from the housetops. It should be what you introduce around every water cooler at work. Students ought to bring this up at lunch at school Seniors should take this to every Tea and Talk. Every Disciple Group member should look for friends to bring to church and engage people in a new frame and new hope. This is a moment to preach the gospel full and free and we haven’t left the starting gate.
And there is peril in waiting. The difference between a false frame and a true frame is small. False religions start when true faith offers no answers to societies crisis. This is the hour to speak to the five brothers and tell them to drop the old frame so they can believe the new miracle.
And it is the hour for you to do the same. We have a quiet metaphor today of two children on a dangerous bridge. It is my favorite picture. Malcolm cut the original so you only see the desperate condition of the bridge and the frailty and beauty of the child. That is your life. That is my life. Walking forward because we have no other direction to go. Walking as carefully as we can but in peril. But when you remove the frame, you can see the angel. Peter says in Acts 12, the Lord sent his angel to rescue me. The Lord is there behind you this morning. The Lord says, my son, drop the old frame, the Lord says, my daughter, believe in me.
Each of us faces a moment of crisis and choice. What will you do?
