Permanent Wave
John 1:1-2:2
Pastor Bill Mosley Doss/Cherry Spring 4/11/2021
A man was driving along the highway and
saw the Easter Bunny hopping across the
road. He swerved, but sadly the Easter
Bunny jumped wrong and was hit.
The driver pulled over to render aid. But
the Easter Bunny was dead. He felt so
awful that he began to cry.
A woman saw the man crying and pulled
over. She asked what was wrong.
“I feel terrible; I accidentally killed the
Easter Bunny.”
The woman said, “Not to worry.” She
pulled out a spray can, walked over to the
limp body, and sprayed the rabbit.
The Easter Bunny came to life, jumped
up, waved its paw at them and hopped
down the road!
Ten feet away the Bunny stopped, turned
around, waved at them again, hopped
another 10 feet, turned, waved, and hopped
another 10 feet, turned and waved and did
this again and again until it was out of sight.
The man was astonished! What
miraculous substance could be in that spray
can? He turned to the woman and asked,
“What was in your spray can? What did you
spray onto that rabbit?”
The woman turned the can so he could
read the label.
It said: “Hair Spray – Restores Life to
Dead Hair – Adds Permanent Wave.” 211 words
I know most folks think Easter was last
Sunday & all the Easter clearance sales are
over, but in the church we’re still in the
Easter season. The grave couldn’t hold
Jesus & one Sunday can’t hold our
celebration of his resurrection. It’s not one
Sunday, it’s more of a permanent wave.
All the epistle readings for this Easter
Season come from John’s first Epistle.
John once asked Jesus for fire from heaven
to destroy a Samaritan village; no wonder
he was called a son of Thunder.
But his experience of the forgiving love of
God, the theme of his letter, caused him to
mellow. He says, “We love because he first
loved us.” themes of the letter are
Confession, forgiveness, cleansing and the
loving intervention of Jesus for our sins.
Robert Brusic compares 1 John to a River
Ride like the one at Six Flags. You’re
floating in a gondola down a stream of
rapids. “The gondola twists, dips, and
turns, carrying riders over a series of drops
beneath the surface. Water circulates
under the vessel and splashes the riders
from behind and in front. Yet, in spite of the
soaking backwash, the pull of the stream is
always toward the goal. In the end the
riders emerge, drenched but satisfied,
having been immersed, propelled, and
surprised by both visible and invisible
forces.” (Word and World, Luther Seminary, 17/2. 1997, p. 213)
1 John has a similar unsettling effect.
“We, the readers, experience the fast
forward movement as well as the
unexpected backwash in the sequence of
readings ….we were carried along by the
swell; but we also had the repeated
experience of being unexpectedly drenched
by the waves of ideas.” (ibid.)
2
It’s like you’re driving along and
something terrible happens and you’re in all
the stages of emotion, denial, anger, grief,
bargaining, and someone comes along with
a miraculous spray that restores life and
you don’t really know how it happened, but
you’re really happy it happened.
John speaks to our denial. “IF we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”
Worse, we even make God a liar. The son
of Thunder hasn’t lost his bluntness; he
points out how hopelessly funny we really
are.
And how we want to deny the reality of
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the
Christ. He asks the very real questions of
what you believe about Jesus, and presses
the issue further: what difference does it
make THAT you believe?
Jesus really lived, died and was raised in
the love of God. How do you live, how will
you die, how will you be raised?
Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus of
Concordia University at Austin said in a
sermon on this text:
One of the people in our century who
more than most refused to settle for nothing
less than real living was Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the anniversary of whose death
we remembered on April 6. In prison,
awaiting his ultimate sentence, he filled his
days with writing poetry, the draft for a
novel, sketches for his writings on ethics,
not to mention a voluminous
correspondence with this fiancée, his family
and his friends. He could not escape the
judgment of the state, the inhumane
treatment of the Nazis, nor his ultimate
execution. They were his lot in life at that
time. Inwardly, however, he wrestled with
who he was and what he was to become.
Whether he was a cowardly woebegone
weakling or a confident representative of
the resistance others would have to judge.
For him, knowing the full power of a
resurrection faith, it was enough to confess
that whoever he was or wasn’t, he was
God’s! That was and is the basis for real
living in fellowship with a real Jesus.
Such a conviction is our emboldening
faith as well. We cannot avoid life’s
problems or challenges, but knowing whose
we are, we have enough strength for the
day to meet each challenge. And, as John
himself might have said, we consider it a
privilege to meet our challenges with a
resurrection faith, for they make our joy
complete (1:4). (245 words)
Lent was 40 days & 7 Sundays long.
Many of you committed yourselves to a
Lenten discipline to prepare for Easter by
fasting, praying, special devotions, or good
works.
Easter is as long as Lent, & more joyous.
Take on an Easter discipline to Celebrate
your salvation, to rejoice in your baptism.
Let me suggest reading the Epistles of
John. There are three & they are short.
1 John is a kind of summary of the ideas
in the Gospel of John. It’s only five
chapters long and doesn’t take long to read.
Commit yourself to read it straight through
once each week these next six weeks.
Look for the waves of ideas, and make the
love of God a permanent wave in your life.
Second and Third John are only a page
apiece. You could memorize 2 John and
have a fine summary of John’s thought.
Celebrate salvation! Rejoice in your
baptism into the resurrection of Jesus!
That your joy may be complete.
Lord, you have risen so we can say no to
whatever makes it more difficult to say yes
to you. 1093 words
Pastor Bill Mosley Doss/Cherry Spring 4/11/2021
A man was driving along the highway and
saw the Easter Bunny hopping across the
road. He swerved, but sadly the Easter
Bunny jumped wrong and was hit.
The driver pulled over to render aid. But
the Easter Bunny was dead. He felt so
awful that he began to cry.
A woman saw the man crying and pulled
over. She asked what was wrong.
“I feel terrible; I accidentally killed the
Easter Bunny.”
The woman said, “Not to worry.” She
pulled out a spray can, walked over to the
limp body, and sprayed the rabbit.
The Easter Bunny came to life, jumped
up, waved its paw at them and hopped
down the road!
Ten feet away the Bunny stopped, turned
around, waved at them again, hopped
another 10 feet, turned, waved, and hopped
another 10 feet, turned and waved and did
this again and again until it was out of sight.
The man was astonished! What
miraculous substance could be in that spray
can? He turned to the woman and asked,
“What was in your spray can? What did you
spray onto that rabbit?”
The woman turned the can so he could
read the label.
It said: “Hair Spray – Restores Life to
Dead Hair – Adds Permanent Wave.” 211 words
I know most folks think Easter was last
Sunday & all the Easter clearance sales are
over, but in the church we’re still in the
Easter season. The grave couldn’t hold
Jesus & one Sunday can’t hold our
celebration of his resurrection. It’s not one
Sunday, it’s more of a permanent wave.
All the epistle readings for this Easter
Season come from John’s first Epistle.
John once asked Jesus for fire from heaven
to destroy a Samaritan village; no wonder
he was called a son of Thunder.
But his experience of the forgiving love of
God, the theme of his letter, caused him to
mellow. He says, “We love because he first
loved us.” themes of the letter are
Confession, forgiveness, cleansing and the
loving intervention of Jesus for our sins.
Robert Brusic compares 1 John to a River
Ride like the one at Six Flags. You’re
floating in a gondola down a stream of
rapids. “The gondola twists, dips, and
turns, carrying riders over a series of drops
beneath the surface. Water circulates
under the vessel and splashes the riders
from behind and in front. Yet, in spite of the
soaking backwash, the pull of the stream is
always toward the goal. In the end the
riders emerge, drenched but satisfied,
having been immersed, propelled, and
surprised by both visible and invisible
forces.” (Word and World, Luther Seminary, 17/2. 1997, p. 213)
1 John has a similar unsettling effect.
“We, the readers, experience the fast
forward movement as well as the
unexpected backwash in the sequence of
readings ….we were carried along by the
swell; but we also had the repeated
experience of being unexpectedly drenched
by the waves of ideas.” (ibid.)
2
It’s like you’re driving along and
something terrible happens and you’re in all
the stages of emotion, denial, anger, grief,
bargaining, and someone comes along with
a miraculous spray that restores life and
you don’t really know how it happened, but
you’re really happy it happened.
John speaks to our denial. “IF we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”
Worse, we even make God a liar. The son
of Thunder hasn’t lost his bluntness; he
points out how hopelessly funny we really
are.
And how we want to deny the reality of
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the
Christ. He asks the very real questions of
what you believe about Jesus, and presses
the issue further: what difference does it
make THAT you believe?
Jesus really lived, died and was raised in
the love of God. How do you live, how will
you die, how will you be raised?
Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus of
Concordia University at Austin said in a
sermon on this text:
One of the people in our century who
more than most refused to settle for nothing
less than real living was Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the anniversary of whose death
we remembered on April 6. In prison,
awaiting his ultimate sentence, he filled his
days with writing poetry, the draft for a
novel, sketches for his writings on ethics,
not to mention a voluminous
correspondence with this fiancée, his family
and his friends. He could not escape the
judgment of the state, the inhumane
treatment of the Nazis, nor his ultimate
execution. They were his lot in life at that
time. Inwardly, however, he wrestled with
who he was and what he was to become.
Whether he was a cowardly woebegone
weakling or a confident representative of
the resistance others would have to judge.
For him, knowing the full power of a
resurrection faith, it was enough to confess
that whoever he was or wasn’t, he was
God’s! That was and is the basis for real
living in fellowship with a real Jesus.
Such a conviction is our emboldening
faith as well. We cannot avoid life’s
problems or challenges, but knowing whose
we are, we have enough strength for the
day to meet each challenge. And, as John
himself might have said, we consider it a
privilege to meet our challenges with a
resurrection faith, for they make our joy
complete (1:4). (245 words)
Lent was 40 days & 7 Sundays long.
Many of you committed yourselves to a
Lenten discipline to prepare for Easter by
fasting, praying, special devotions, or good
works.
Easter is as long as Lent, & more joyous.
Take on an Easter discipline to Celebrate
your salvation, to rejoice in your baptism.
Let me suggest reading the Epistles of
John. There are three & they are short.
1 John is a kind of summary of the ideas
in the Gospel of John. It’s only five
chapters long and doesn’t take long to read.
Commit yourself to read it straight through
once each week these next six weeks.
Look for the waves of ideas, and make the
love of God a permanent wave in your life.
Second and Third John are only a page
apiece. You could memorize 2 John and
have a fine summary of John’s thought.
Celebrate salvation! Rejoice in your
baptism into the resurrection of Jesus!
That your joy may be complete.
Lord, you have risen so we can say no to
whatever makes it more difficult to say yes
to you. 1093 words
LORD, keep us saying no to everything that makes it more difficult to say yes to YOU.
