Audio Podcast of this
After the first Easter, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples at least eleven times that we’ve counted in the Bible. And reading between the lines of the Bible, from what the disciples wrote, it appears that Jesus sat and talked with them for many hours during these forty days, teaching them many things before He left them to return to His Father in Heaven. Luke pays particular attention to this day, for Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts – two of our readings today.
And the story is simple. Jesus gets the disciples together – not just the twelve, but a whole big group of perhaps 120 men and women. He leads them out of Jerusalem, up the Mount of Olives to Bethany on the other side of the hill, while talking. He tells them to go back and wait in Jerusalem a few days until they receive power from the Holy Spirit, and then they are to tell people what they saw – to be witnesses of the great events of Jesus’ teaching and miracles, his death, his resurrection, and his appearances after his resurrection, which, when you put it all together is proof of God’s great love for us and all of our friends, neighbors, and family. And the last thing Jesus talks about is that we are to go and tell people about all this.
And then, he floats up to Heaven, the disciples just keep staring up like when you let go of a balloon and the balloon floats up, up, up into the clouds! And about this time, a couple of angels appear standing beside these men and women who are staring at the sky and those angels tells them “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” And so everybody worships Jesus and returns laughing and singing in joy to Jerusalem, where they go into the Temple and bless God for what God has done…Their friend and teacher had left, but promised he’d return again for them. What joy!
But there was also a bit of fear. They were alone! Their leader had left them, and they began to realize that the entire success of the Jesus movement would lie upon them. In particular, Simon Peter felt the weight of Jesus leaving, for Jesus had told him to take care of his sheep. What would he do, as the men and women around him joyfully walked back to Jerusalem. What should Peter do next? For Peter had led a fishing boat as captain, but this was something altogether new and different. Peter was about to lead his small band of friends in the invasion of Satan’s world. He had only about 120 men and women who had followed Jesus…would they follow Peter’s leading as they encountered the full force of the Roman Empire? More importantly, did Peter have the faith that this Holy Spirit would give him life-bringing advice, blowing at his back as Peter met with evil? Would the Holy Spirit provide the support that Peter needed?
I was thinking this week about a friend of mine from college days – Scott. As a little boy, Scott had his first run-in with evil. Have you ever seen one of those Zombie movies? Scott grew up about a quarter-mile from the house where “Night of the Living Dead” was filmed, one of the original Zombie movies. The movie zombies walked in the field near his home! It really affected Scott - I can’t think about him without thinking about Zombies – and Zombies are all the rage with some people. I was driving along and there was a bumper sticker that said, “I love Zombies”. You know zombies – you kill them, but pretty soon, give them a few minutes and they start to move again. Give them five minutes and they’re coming after you again.
Scott was fascinated by Zombies back in college. And he was fascinated by the bizarre. He used to record every TV show that was weird or strange. He particularly liked “The Twilight Zone”, where every week we saw some unusual – but made-up stories that taught us a lesson. Scott tried to tape every episode. Often, the hero of the made-up story would find himself or herself alone in a strange location, and they would have to decide what to do.
I want to tell you a true story today, about an unusual man who had learned many good lessons and then found himself all alone with many men’s lives depending upon the decisions he made. It is a true story; a true story about a man named Ted.
Ted was born to wealthy parents who lived on Long Island. When he was just a child, his father often taught him. Oh, Dad didn’t teach Ted how to read and write. Instead, Dad taught Ted about history. As Ted later said, it wasn’t the usual dry history of dates and mere facts, though. It was an exciting history, a history which had stories of men and battles. Dad and Ted would be out walking around, and Dad would start telling another story about another great leader and another war. Every time they got to a battle, Dad would draw the entire battle out in the dust with the tip of his umbrella. Furthermore, Dad asked Ted what HE would do in the situation. Ted began to believe that HE could be one of those great men. It was as if Ted was getting trained for something God would do with him later in life. And Ted was being trained.
Dad bought Ted a rifle when he was nine or so. Just to test it out and show his son it was real, Ted’s Dad fired the gun – inside the house – and the bullet went into the ceiling. Luckily for them both, Mom never caught them. It could have been very dangerous. But soon Ted became comfortable with rifles. He loved to hunt, but he also understood the military uses of the weapons.
Ted went to Harvard for college, and then into business, but he never forgot those history lessons. He even paid to go to a summer camp where he received some military leadership training, so when a war broke out, he was made a second lieutenant and eventually a major and finally as a lieutenant colonel. Since he had good money and his men needed new combat boots, he bought them all new boots. He cared about his men. He served well in that war as an officer – but he was wounded. He experienced physical pain. And while he was fighting, he got word that his father had died at home. He experienced emotional pain. Plus now, Ted had to learn things on his own – reading books and looking for places he could learn, since his Dad would not be able to teach him any longer.
After the war, he went back into business and politics, but every couple of years, he would go to another class or two and learn more about fighting wars and leading men. But he always cared about his men. He even helped found the American Legion.
After the first Easter, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples at least eleven times that we’ve counted in the Bible. And reading between the lines of the Bible, from what the disciples wrote, it appears that Jesus sat and talked with them for many hours during these forty days, teaching them many things before He left them to return to His Father in Heaven. Luke pays particular attention to this day, for Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts – two of our readings today.
And the story is simple. Jesus gets the disciples together – not just the twelve, but a whole big group of perhaps 120 men and women. He leads them out of Jerusalem, up the Mount of Olives to Bethany on the other side of the hill, while talking. He tells them to go back and wait in Jerusalem a few days until they receive power from the Holy Spirit, and then they are to tell people what they saw – to be witnesses of the great events of Jesus’ teaching and miracles, his death, his resurrection, and his appearances after his resurrection, which, when you put it all together is proof of God’s great love for us and all of our friends, neighbors, and family. And the last thing Jesus talks about is that we are to go and tell people about all this.
And then, he floats up to Heaven, the disciples just keep staring up like when you let go of a balloon and the balloon floats up, up, up into the clouds! And about this time, a couple of angels appear standing beside these men and women who are staring at the sky and those angels tells them “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” And so everybody worships Jesus and returns laughing and singing in joy to Jerusalem, where they go into the Temple and bless God for what God has done…Their friend and teacher had left, but promised he’d return again for them. What joy!
But there was also a bit of fear. They were alone! Their leader had left them, and they began to realize that the entire success of the Jesus movement would lie upon them. In particular, Simon Peter felt the weight of Jesus leaving, for Jesus had told him to take care of his sheep. What would he do, as the men and women around him joyfully walked back to Jerusalem. What should Peter do next? For Peter had led a fishing boat as captain, but this was something altogether new and different. Peter was about to lead his small band of friends in the invasion of Satan’s world. He had only about 120 men and women who had followed Jesus…would they follow Peter’s leading as they encountered the full force of the Roman Empire? More importantly, did Peter have the faith that this Holy Spirit would give him life-bringing advice, blowing at his back as Peter met with evil? Would the Holy Spirit provide the support that Peter needed?
I was thinking this week about a friend of mine from college days – Scott. As a little boy, Scott had his first run-in with evil. Have you ever seen one of those Zombie movies? Scott grew up about a quarter-mile from the house where “Night of the Living Dead” was filmed, one of the original Zombie movies. The movie zombies walked in the field near his home! It really affected Scott - I can’t think about him without thinking about Zombies – and Zombies are all the rage with some people. I was driving along and there was a bumper sticker that said, “I love Zombies”. You know zombies – you kill them, but pretty soon, give them a few minutes and they start to move again. Give them five minutes and they’re coming after you again.
Scott was fascinated by Zombies back in college. And he was fascinated by the bizarre. He used to record every TV show that was weird or strange. He particularly liked “The Twilight Zone”, where every week we saw some unusual – but made-up stories that taught us a lesson. Scott tried to tape every episode. Often, the hero of the made-up story would find himself or herself alone in a strange location, and they would have to decide what to do.
I want to tell you a true story today, about an unusual man who had learned many good lessons and then found himself all alone with many men’s lives depending upon the decisions he made. It is a true story; a true story about a man named Ted.
Ted was born to wealthy parents who lived on Long Island. When he was just a child, his father often taught him. Oh, Dad didn’t teach Ted how to read and write. Instead, Dad taught Ted about history. As Ted later said, it wasn’t the usual dry history of dates and mere facts, though. It was an exciting history, a history which had stories of men and battles. Dad and Ted would be out walking around, and Dad would start telling another story about another great leader and another war. Every time they got to a battle, Dad would draw the entire battle out in the dust with the tip of his umbrella. Furthermore, Dad asked Ted what HE would do in the situation. Ted began to believe that HE could be one of those great men. It was as if Ted was getting trained for something God would do with him later in life. And Ted was being trained.
Dad bought Ted a rifle when he was nine or so. Just to test it out and show his son it was real, Ted’s Dad fired the gun – inside the house – and the bullet went into the ceiling. Luckily for them both, Mom never caught them. It could have been very dangerous. But soon Ted became comfortable with rifles. He loved to hunt, but he also understood the military uses of the weapons.
Ted went to Harvard for college, and then into business, but he never forgot those history lessons. He even paid to go to a summer camp where he received some military leadership training, so when a war broke out, he was made a second lieutenant and eventually a major and finally as a lieutenant colonel. Since he had good money and his men needed new combat boots, he bought them all new boots. He cared about his men. He served well in that war as an officer – but he was wounded. He experienced physical pain. And while he was fighting, he got word that his father had died at home. He experienced emotional pain. Plus now, Ted had to learn things on his own – reading books and looking for places he could learn, since his Dad would not be able to teach him any longer.
After the war, he went back into business and politics, but every couple of years, he would go to another class or two and learn more about fighting wars and leading men. But he always cared about his men. He even helped found the American Legion.
Ted spent some time in Puerto Rico as the governor of that territory, learning 20 words of Spanish a day so he could understand the problems of Puerto Rico, which is an island where most people speak Spanish, and then he spent some more time in the Philippines as the governor of that territory, which was controlled by the United States at the time. After a few years in politics, he went back to business running a couple of important companies. He had found those history lessons and war fighting lessons very valuable in teaching him how to lead.
Then, another war broke out and he went back to soldiering, this time as a colonel. He soon became a general.
He led troops in major landings on beaches in North Africa and Sicily and Italy and Sardinia, solving problems and telling men where to attack. But a couple of higher ranking generals, George Patton and Omar Bradley, decided that he cared too much for his men and that this hurt discipline when they were between battles. So he was removed from his command and sent to England to prepare and plan for the great invasion that was coming that summer.
He asked his commanding general several times if he could go to the beach with the first group of soldiers, but his commander was concerned about his age – after all, he was 56 years old and would be the oldest man to hit the beach. Finally, Ted put his request in writing and his commander reluctantly approved it – he said later that he did not think Ted would survive the day.
So 75 years ago this Thursday morning, on June 6, 1944, early before dawn, he landed with his troops on a beach. He was one of the very first men off the boats. Immediately, he went with a handful of soldiers and checked out the approaches to the beach. They had landed in the wrong place – a mile or so too far south! Nothing was where it was supposed to be – the whole plan needed changing! So Ted said, “We’ll start the war from right here!” and changed the plan and then told all of his soldiers about the new plans while being shot at.
There were enemy troops on the hill overlooking the beach, so he took some soldiers and went out under fire. After some hard fighting, Ted and his troops controlled the beach and the hill.
For the rest of the day, more soldiers landed on the beach, every hour or two more and more soldiers landed, more and more tanks landed, reinforcements were pouring onto the beach, wave after wave of men arriving to help out Ted. And as they landed, Ted calmly told their commanders exactly where their new objectives were, where to go and how to get there. All the while, bullets and artillery shells were landing around, sometimes sending dirt clods landing on Ted’s helmet. One solder later said that he had been scared until he saw General Ted walking around calmly and decided that if the general was calm it couldn’t be that bad. All that teaching that Dad gave Ted had come in handy. And for all this, he won the Medal of Honor for bravery under fire.
Now, some of you probably know by now who I’m talking about.
Yes, it was Teddy Roosevelt –but not the President Teddy Roosevelt you’ve all heard about. It was General Theodore Roosevelt, JUNIOR. DAD was the Teddy Roosevelt who had charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba in 1898, leading the Rough Riders Calvary charge. DAD was the man who had become President. Dad was the man for whom the Teddy Bear was designed after. His son Ted, Teddy, Junior, was the Commander-in-Chief of the first wave of the invasion force that landed at Utah beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944, 75 years ago this Thursday morning.
Now, there are several things that we have to notice about this story.
First, parents should notice that Ted’s father intentionally taught Ted Junior what he considered important. Now every father teaches his sons – and every mother teaches her daughters. Actions speak very loudly and teach our children. But what do you intentionally teach your kids? Do you intentionally teach your children about what you consider important? Things like trusting in God, being brave, being a leader, never lying, making church the most important thing on Sundays?
Second, though, the senior Roosevelt taught his son many things without ever meaning to, Teddy Sr. lived his life the same way he wanted his son to live life. His actions also taught Ted the same things his words taught his son. Don’t you think that Ted, Junior, knew how his father had bravely ridden up San Juan Hill during the invasion of Cuba? After all, the boy had been eleven years old when Dad led that cavalry charge. The boy had learned the lesson well - and led the charge up to take the hill at Normandy. He had learned what his father meant by character – by demonstrating it time and again. He watched his father and listened to what other people said about his father – and he learned more from his father’s actions than he did from what his father said. But his father's words helped things make sense.
Roosevelt, Senior, became President. But he didn’t play by the corrupt rules of most politicians. He did what was right – even though it cost him two elections. Ted, Junior, didn’t follow the ordinary rules, either. He was the only general to land by sea with the first wave of troops – and that had required several verbal requests and a written request to get permission. He had argued intensely for him to be there to make sense of the chaos that is combat, to solve the inevitable problems, to adjust the plans when things weren't the way the planners had assumed. Finally, his boss had agreed to him hitting the beach.
Let me go back for a minute to General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr on Utah Beach in Normandy. General Ted’s boss, the 4th Division commander, Major General Barton, arrived later that afternoon after things had quieted down a bit. Roosevelt had absolutely everything under control. He had done what he was supposed to do. Problems had been solved on the spot, objectives were being taken, the new plan was working – and Barton was tickled pink! Barton sent in a request for a medal for General Ted and told Eisenhower how well General Ted had led. Because of this, Eisenhower prepared to promote Roosevelt to Major General and orders were cut to put him in charge of the 90th Infantry Division.
Unfortunately, Roosevelt died of a heart attack 5 weeks after the invasion on July 12th. He received the Medal of Honor, the army’s highest award, and he is buried at the Normandy Cemetery. Both Omar Bradley and George Patton were pallbearers at his funeral.
Ted did what his father had taught and practiced in front of him. If anything, he exceeded his father’s military accomplishments. Dad, President Teddy Roosevelt, SR was a real soldier. And Ted - Teddy Roosevelt, JR followed and was also a real soldier, like millions of other men and women who fought in that war, World War II and like millions of other men and women who fought in other wars since. Every once in a while, I think it is necessary that we remember what lessons are important to learn – and even remember that learning, always learning is important.
And so, we all need to learn our lessons. Some lessons are given to us by our earthly fathers and mothers, by our aunts and uncles, by our grandfathers and grandmothers. Other lessons are given to us by our older friends – our teachers, our Sunday school teachers, our church friends.
But one day, each of us must decide ourselves to seek out new ideas, to learn things by ourselves, to find out how to learn by ourselves. We must find the classes, the books, the Scripture that applies to our lives.
You see, when General Ted’s father died, General Ted stepped forward and found places to learn even more about what he needed to know. When Jesus went back to Heaven, Peter and the other disciples began to spend time, lots of time, reading their Scriptures, the Old Testament, so they could know what to do and how to speak and what to say to others. They understood that they were now on their own…
But were they?
Jesus had promised that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them…and they remembered that on that Thursday night before his death, while they were sitting eating the Last Supper, Jesus had said, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”
And so Peter read Scripture and listened to the Holy Spirit. He quickly had the group replace Judas with Mathias so they had a full Twelve Apostles once again. And then, when something wonderful happened a week and a half later, Peter understood what was happening and stepped forward. But that is a story for next week.
And so, remember this, each of you…when you are standing all alone, everything is messed up, the old plan won’t work, bullets and artillery shells are landing all around – there may even be zombies headed your way, and you are the only general on your personal beach…remember the lessons your heavenly Father has taught you, the lessons you have learned from reading and studying your Scripture, the Bible lessons: pray for help from God your Father…and listen to the advice of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, God the Holy Spirit, who will teach you all things and remind you of everything Jesus has said.
And if you do, you will be fine, the new plans will work out, God will send you reinforcements to overwhelm the enemy and at the end of the day, you can say to Jesus, “I did what I was supposed to do.”
And He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Then, another war broke out and he went back to soldiering, this time as a colonel. He soon became a general.
He led troops in major landings on beaches in North Africa and Sicily and Italy and Sardinia, solving problems and telling men where to attack. But a couple of higher ranking generals, George Patton and Omar Bradley, decided that he cared too much for his men and that this hurt discipline when they were between battles. So he was removed from his command and sent to England to prepare and plan for the great invasion that was coming that summer.
He asked his commanding general several times if he could go to the beach with the first group of soldiers, but his commander was concerned about his age – after all, he was 56 years old and would be the oldest man to hit the beach. Finally, Ted put his request in writing and his commander reluctantly approved it – he said later that he did not think Ted would survive the day.
So 75 years ago this Thursday morning, on June 6, 1944, early before dawn, he landed with his troops on a beach. He was one of the very first men off the boats. Immediately, he went with a handful of soldiers and checked out the approaches to the beach. They had landed in the wrong place – a mile or so too far south! Nothing was where it was supposed to be – the whole plan needed changing! So Ted said, “We’ll start the war from right here!” and changed the plan and then told all of his soldiers about the new plans while being shot at.
There were enemy troops on the hill overlooking the beach, so he took some soldiers and went out under fire. After some hard fighting, Ted and his troops controlled the beach and the hill.
For the rest of the day, more soldiers landed on the beach, every hour or two more and more soldiers landed, more and more tanks landed, reinforcements were pouring onto the beach, wave after wave of men arriving to help out Ted. And as they landed, Ted calmly told their commanders exactly where their new objectives were, where to go and how to get there. All the while, bullets and artillery shells were landing around, sometimes sending dirt clods landing on Ted’s helmet. One solder later said that he had been scared until he saw General Ted walking around calmly and decided that if the general was calm it couldn’t be that bad. All that teaching that Dad gave Ted had come in handy. And for all this, he won the Medal of Honor for bravery under fire.
Now, some of you probably know by now who I’m talking about.
Yes, it was Teddy Roosevelt –but not the President Teddy Roosevelt you’ve all heard about. It was General Theodore Roosevelt, JUNIOR. DAD was the Teddy Roosevelt who had charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba in 1898, leading the Rough Riders Calvary charge. DAD was the man who had become President. Dad was the man for whom the Teddy Bear was designed after. His son Ted, Teddy, Junior, was the Commander-in-Chief of the first wave of the invasion force that landed at Utah beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944, 75 years ago this Thursday morning.
Now, there are several things that we have to notice about this story.
First, parents should notice that Ted’s father intentionally taught Ted Junior what he considered important. Now every father teaches his sons – and every mother teaches her daughters. Actions speak very loudly and teach our children. But what do you intentionally teach your kids? Do you intentionally teach your children about what you consider important? Things like trusting in God, being brave, being a leader, never lying, making church the most important thing on Sundays?
Second, though, the senior Roosevelt taught his son many things without ever meaning to, Teddy Sr. lived his life the same way he wanted his son to live life. His actions also taught Ted the same things his words taught his son. Don’t you think that Ted, Junior, knew how his father had bravely ridden up San Juan Hill during the invasion of Cuba? After all, the boy had been eleven years old when Dad led that cavalry charge. The boy had learned the lesson well - and led the charge up to take the hill at Normandy. He had learned what his father meant by character – by demonstrating it time and again. He watched his father and listened to what other people said about his father – and he learned more from his father’s actions than he did from what his father said. But his father's words helped things make sense.
Roosevelt, Senior, became President. But he didn’t play by the corrupt rules of most politicians. He did what was right – even though it cost him two elections. Ted, Junior, didn’t follow the ordinary rules, either. He was the only general to land by sea with the first wave of troops – and that had required several verbal requests and a written request to get permission. He had argued intensely for him to be there to make sense of the chaos that is combat, to solve the inevitable problems, to adjust the plans when things weren't the way the planners had assumed. Finally, his boss had agreed to him hitting the beach.
Let me go back for a minute to General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr on Utah Beach in Normandy. General Ted’s boss, the 4th Division commander, Major General Barton, arrived later that afternoon after things had quieted down a bit. Roosevelt had absolutely everything under control. He had done what he was supposed to do. Problems had been solved on the spot, objectives were being taken, the new plan was working – and Barton was tickled pink! Barton sent in a request for a medal for General Ted and told Eisenhower how well General Ted had led. Because of this, Eisenhower prepared to promote Roosevelt to Major General and orders were cut to put him in charge of the 90th Infantry Division.
Unfortunately, Roosevelt died of a heart attack 5 weeks after the invasion on July 12th. He received the Medal of Honor, the army’s highest award, and he is buried at the Normandy Cemetery. Both Omar Bradley and George Patton were pallbearers at his funeral.
Ted did what his father had taught and practiced in front of him. If anything, he exceeded his father’s military accomplishments. Dad, President Teddy Roosevelt, SR was a real soldier. And Ted - Teddy Roosevelt, JR followed and was also a real soldier, like millions of other men and women who fought in that war, World War II and like millions of other men and women who fought in other wars since. Every once in a while, I think it is necessary that we remember what lessons are important to learn – and even remember that learning, always learning is important.
And so, we all need to learn our lessons. Some lessons are given to us by our earthly fathers and mothers, by our aunts and uncles, by our grandfathers and grandmothers. Other lessons are given to us by our older friends – our teachers, our Sunday school teachers, our church friends.
But one day, each of us must decide ourselves to seek out new ideas, to learn things by ourselves, to find out how to learn by ourselves. We must find the classes, the books, the Scripture that applies to our lives.
You see, when General Ted’s father died, General Ted stepped forward and found places to learn even more about what he needed to know. When Jesus went back to Heaven, Peter and the other disciples began to spend time, lots of time, reading their Scriptures, the Old Testament, so they could know what to do and how to speak and what to say to others. They understood that they were now on their own…
But were they?
Jesus had promised that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them…and they remembered that on that Thursday night before his death, while they were sitting eating the Last Supper, Jesus had said, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”
And so Peter read Scripture and listened to the Holy Spirit. He quickly had the group replace Judas with Mathias so they had a full Twelve Apostles once again. And then, when something wonderful happened a week and a half later, Peter understood what was happening and stepped forward. But that is a story for next week.
And so, remember this, each of you…when you are standing all alone, everything is messed up, the old plan won’t work, bullets and artillery shells are landing all around – there may even be zombies headed your way, and you are the only general on your personal beach…remember the lessons your heavenly Father has taught you, the lessons you have learned from reading and studying your Scripture, the Bible lessons: pray for help from God your Father…and listen to the advice of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, God the Holy Spirit, who will teach you all things and remind you of everything Jesus has said.
And if you do, you will be fine, the new plans will work out, God will send you reinforcements to overwhelm the enemy and at the end of the day, you can say to Jesus, “I did what I was supposed to do.”
And He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
