So That We Might Live

Today’s message was written by the founder of Dial Hope, the Rev. Roger Kunkel

In Scotland, there is a lighthouse called Old Williams Light. The man that kept that light would come into town two times a week to get groceries and go to church. But one day, the man did not show up at his regular time. There had been a bad storm the night before, so his friends were worried about him. They went over to the lighthouse and found him unconscious. He had slipped on the rocks and broken his leg. But he had known that the light needed to be lighted that night. So he agonizingly crawled up those long spiral steps to the top to turn on the light. Because of his weakened condition, he caught pneumonia and later died in the hospital. After his funeral, a man came to town and said, “I want to erect a monument to this light keeper. I was the captain of a ship and was caught in the storm that night. I did not know where I was and I was headed for the rocks. But then suddenly, the light came on and I was able to see where I was.” Then he added, “This is the first time in my life that I can truly say someone died that I might live.”

He was wrong, of course, because 2000 years ago, on a hill called Calvary, Christ died so that we could live. Jesus preached love, unconditional love. He stood tall for what is right. And then he climbed up on the cross for you and me, to die that we might live. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, to give us acceptance, forgiveness, and life. Wherever we are on our journey of faith, we can begin again.

Let us pray: Loving God, blow your spirit of gentleness and strength into the lives of those whose candles of hope have grown dim and weak. Weave your grace into the patchwork quilts that are the days of our lives. Tune our hearts to the anthems of peace and take us home when our day is done. For we ask these things with souls full of the love you showed us in the life of your son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.