Text:  Jeremiah 17:5-8                                                                                         W 6^th Sunday of Epiphany

On Being Superman

            In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ: For most of us, when we were growing up, comic books, television, and film gave us a veritable pantheon of superheroes to admire and also to stimulate our imaginations.  Some of the favorites I recall include Spiderman, Batman, and the Incredible Hulk.  Today there’s a whole lot more of them, but I’ve long since lost track of such things. Still, I personally think the all time favorite has got to be Superman.  When I was young, he was the one we all fanaticized of being.  He was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  I mean, he had it all:  powers of super strength, flight, x-ray vision … why it seemed that there was nothing that he couldn’t do.  The other superheroes all had fatal weaknesses or personality problems of one kind or another.  Superman’s only weakness was Kryptonite – but, c’mon, how often are you going to run into that?  No, he was the one most kids wanted to be so that they could carry on the fight for truth, justice, and the American way.

            Being Superman, however, was the stuff of imagination – for most of us, that is. But as it turns out, there are two men now living who actually used the title.  Former actor Christopher Reeves played the role in several motion pictures. In these films we saw him flying, combating villains, and of course, winning the heart of the lovely Louis Lane. And for playing this role as he did, he will always be remembered as Superman.  And I think it would be right to say that having performed the role, he was well on his way to becoming a “superman” of another sort – and by that I mean a superstar.  He had all the credentials:  good looks, decent acting ability – he even had the proper pedigree:  his father was a well-known actor.  In fact, he played the role of Superman in the 1950s television series.  With all he had going for him it seemed that even Kryptonite couldn’t stop Christopher Reeves from reaching the top.  But, as most of you know, about a decade ago this superman fell from a horse and broke his neck.   There’s a sheath of insulating material that covers the nerves of the spinal cord. For Reeves, as a result of his injury, there’s about a quarter inch of that insulation that’s missing causing what amounts to an electrical short circuit.  Now he’s absolutely paralyzed from the neck down.  So it happens that the man of steel who once was seen on screen saving humankind by pushing the earth back into its orbit is now seen supported by all kinds of steel braces and getting around in an incredibly sophisticated wheel chair that he operates by blowing into a tube.

            But then he only played the part of Superman.  There’s another living legend who took the title for himself by virtue of his amazing strength and agility.  I speak, of course, of former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Apart from his boxing skill, he’s probably best remembered for his absolute lack of humility, insisting as he did often and loudly that he was The Greatest.  And in his heyday, if you saw him fight, you had to agree.  But even Ali had his limitations.  Once, when he was taking an airline flight, the plane was readying for takeoff.  The flight attendant came by checking the passengers to make sure all had complied with all the preflight preparations.  She stopped beside Ali and told him that he would have to buckle his seat belt.  The fighter leaned back and said in his cocky style, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” Without hesitation the attendant smiled sweetly and said, “Superman don’t need no airplane.  Buckle up.”  These days, as again you probably know, “Superman” Ali needs a lot more help than seatbelts can provide.   He suffers from a condition known among career prizefighters.  It results of years of receiving punishing blows to the head. As I understand it (in layman’s terms), the tissues that surround the brain and secure it in its place are torn so that the grey matter kind of sloshes around in there unrestrained. The effect is that while he is able to think as clearly as he ever did (… and I’ll pause here to let the irony of that statement sink in), his brain’s ability to tell his body what to do is severely hampered.  His movements are very slow and sluggish, his speech is slurred, and he sleeps a lot. The grace, agility, strength, and speed that once made him a superman are gone.

            Now, if you’re beginning to wonder why I’m telling you the sad stories of former supermen, let me explain that it comes from an idea suggested in this morning’s Old Testament lesson.  There we read, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on the flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  In the original Hebrew it’s a little clearer, because where it says “Cursed is the one”, what it actually says is, “Cursed is the mighty one”, or “Cursed is the strong one”.  The word used there suggests a person who has it all together, and who is able to handle all life’s challenges.  He’s a superman, of sorts; and in this case one who relies on using his own force and wit – or, the force and wit of others that he’s gathered to himself like in the case of a ruler with a strong army:  he’s still depending on the strength of men, and therefore has no need to rely on the Lord.  Such a person – such a superman – the Lord says, “is cursed” because he’s placed his trust in something that is weak and fleeting.

            That man, the passage continues, is “Like a bush in a desert wasteland”.  The bush mentioned there is spindly desert plant that spends most of its time looking like nothing more than a collection of dead sticks.  Usually it’s completely bare and devoid of any leaf or blossom.  When a chance desert rain comes, the plant briefly springs to life for a couple of weeks, but then immediately goes back to its deathlike appearance.  It drinks what it can while it can – sucking its life from the momentarily moist sand; but it casts no shade to shelter anyone, it bears no fruit for anyone to eat, and eventually, when a particularly long drought comes, it dies for good.  Then even the rain God sends can’t revive it.  Such is the superman who relies on the flesh.

            And you might think the sad setbacks that Christopher Reeves and Muhammad Ali have suffered might have changed their focus.  The Lord often uses life’s droughts to encourage people to turn their trust to him.  Unfortunately, these two supermen still place their trust in the flesh.  Reeves claims to have no religious faith; but he does hope to walk again.  He’s placed his trust in technology – in man’s ability to solve health problems through science.  Now, please don’t misunderstand me:  there’s nothing wrong with science and technology.  It’s a great gift that God has given us – but that’s the way it needs to be understood, as God’s gift, and therefore used within the parameters he has established for us.  For his part, Reeves has become a leading advocate of pursuing and expanding the field of embryonic stem-cell research.  If you’re not familiar with that, you should know that the stem cells for this research are obtained from unborn human babies, who, as you might have guessed, do not survive the process of having their stem cells removed for study.  Now, Reeves does not advocate creating babies expressly for the purpose of killing them and taking their stem cells; but he figures why not do it with those babies nobody wants.  If the government has already said it’s okay to kill them (as in the case of legal abortion), why not use them for medical experiments? And if that idea sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same one used by the Nazis when they turned over hundreds of Jews to the infamous Dr. Mengele and others like him for medical research.  But that doesn’t matter to Reeves and those who think like him.  “If people have to die so that maybe one day I can walk, well, that’s a small price to pay (for me it is anyway).”  And I guess they should be happy to do it for Superman, hmm?  … Have their little lives sucked away so maybe he can get better? … For a few years … until the final drought comes.

            “Superman” Muhammad Ali is not looking for a medical breakthrough to save him from his condition.  His sights are set quite a bit higher.  You see, Ali is a practicing Muslim, and he hopes to earn the right to enter eternal life in heaven.  Muslims believe that’s accomplished by living a life that is pleasing to Allah, their god. You have to earn the right to enter heaven by doing good works.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much Ali is able to do these days; but one thing he can do is sign autographs.  No … they aren’t very legible; he doesn’t have that kind of motor control anymore; but these autographs are from the hand of the man who was considered “The Greatest”, and therefore they have some value.  Ali believes that by giving away signed pictures of himself, especially to children (most of whom probably have no idea who he is) that Allah, the god of the Muslims, will consider that to be a good and noble work; and that if he signs enough of them, they will cancel out the sins of his rather intemperate youth. How many is enough?  No Muslim knows for sure.  So he spends several hours each day busy at it, trusting … hoping … that maybe, just maybe, in the end he will have done a sufficient amount to earn him admission to the great Harem in the sky.  Ali is trying to atone for his sins with every ounce of the rapidly drying up human strength he has left. … But the Lord says, “Cursed is the superman who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength.

            Such a person is cursed because he has as his god something other that the One True God.  And I’m not talking about Allah the god of the Muslims; because the truth is that no Muslim actually worships him.  Martin Luther very correctly said that whatever it is you trust in, whatever it is you look to for relief, for good things, for hope, for salvation in this life and for the next … that thing, whatever it is, is your god.  Every good Muslim is working to please Allah by their own efforts; so their trust is actually in themselves.  While they claim to worship Allah as their god, the truth is that they are their own gods – their own idols.  Reeves has medical research and science as his idol.  So it is with everyone who places his hope and trust in anything but the Lord.

            And that means us too:  Christians not immune to this.  In fact most of us have a whole pantheon of idols that we trust in.  Ask yourself, what is it in your life that if it were taken away would reduce you to a state of hopelessness and despair?   Maybe it’s your talents and good looks, or it’s your bank account and health insurance policy; it might be your retirement plan or your property or your home; it could be your health or your reputation: “all men speaking well of you”; maybe it’s a certain person or group of people:  your spouse, your children.   We fall into idolatry when we look to these sorts of things to satisfy our wants and needs. That’s because we’re trusting in created things that God gives us, rather than the God who created them and provided them to us for our use.  The roots of our trust then are shallow – they run only as deep as the surface things.

            And this can be even more the case when it comes to spiritual things and our hope of eternal life.  It’s very easy for Christians to file away the truth that “Jesus died for my sins”, and recite it faithfully when asked; but end up trusting for salvation in their own inherent goodness, or the sincerity of their commitment – the way they’ve devoted their lives to the Lord and given their hearts to Jesus.  They look for assurance of salvation not in the work and merits of Christ, but rather in their own record of being a good Christian – a superman or superwoman, doing it on their own.  If we’re honest, we have to admit that we’re guilty of this sort of idolatry too.

            But recognizing that is the key to becoming a true superman or superwoman.  If you know that you’ve been trusting in idols, you’ll also know how foolish and wrong that is – and you’ll turn to the Lord in repentance.  You’ll look to him for forgiveness and hope – and he’ll grant it.  The passage we’ve been considering continues, “Blessed is the mighty one whose trust is in the Lord, whose confidence is in him”.  Such a person is a superman because his trust is properly placed on the one with real power to save, to grant life, and to grant every good thing in life.  That person, the passage says, “is like a tree planted by a stream”.  And it’s interesting that the Hebrew word used there actually suggests the idea of having been transplanted.   It’s like the tree started growing in an unfavorably dry place, but then some kindhearted gardener came along and moved it to where the water is.  And indeed, that’s exactly what happened to us:  the Lord, the original Gardener, moved us from the desert of in to the water of Baptism, and there he put our roots down into the living water of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That’s where we can flourish.  Remaining there ensures that we are daily washed clean of our sin, that his life and Spirit flows into us, and that we can grow strong and bear fruit.

            And, as the passage says, we will have no fear of the heat and droughts that come along in life.  When a time of trial comes, we can see past the present distress to the God who gives all in its proper season, but who has made us the promise that whatever we may see, feel, or experience, whatever things we might lose in this life, it’s all part of his good and gracious plan to perfect us through our trust in him. So, even when the surface water of the stream dries up, and others are panicking, it’s no problem for the person whose roots run deep.  There’s still plenty of water out of sight beneath the surface.  In fact, it’s the dry spells that encourage growth down deep where it can’t be seen – but where it becomes evident the next time a dry spell comes.  The person who, because of severe circumstances, has had to learn to rely only on the Lord stands steady and serene in subsequent crises.  That person is a true superman because he trusts in the Lord.

            And this truth is best exemplified in the most “super” man of all time:  our Lord Jesus Christ.  When he was crucified for our sin, he faced the hardest drought of all.  Men rejected and despised him, heaping on insult and unbelievable pain.  The horrors of death by crucifixion are unparalleled.  But the hottest blast came from within:  the cool water of God’s favor and love was deprived him, and he experienced only the searing heat of God’s wrath against the rebellion of man.  There, nailed to the wood of that dead tree, he had nothing to cling to but a promise.  But with the supreme confidence once expressed by him through the Old Testament saint Job he said to himself within, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” When every sensation said, “give up”, “throw in the towel”, “call it quits”, the Lord Jesus did not falter or become discouraged.  And even in death, he committed his Spirit to his Father who was in the process of abusing him so.  But in so doing, because he trusted in the Lord, he has become blessed beyond measure. He was raised and exalted the right hand of his Father.  He has become the ultimate Superman.  And that dead tree upon which he died has, figuratively speaking, come to life, blossomed, and is even now producing fruit that gives life to all who trust in him.

            And we too become supermen and superwomen when we seek shelter from the heat in the shade of the cross; and food and drink for our hungry and thirsting souls from its fruit:  the life giving body and blood of our Savior.  From the cross flows always the living water we can rely upon in the most severe times of trial.  May our gracious Lord instill in us such a confidence in that promise, that turning from all our idols we can trust only in him for every good thing for this life and for the next.  May he make us such super men and women of faith.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!