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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: November 22, 2015 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
Generations: Blessing and Honoring
Matthew Inman, creator of the humorous website The Oatmeal, posted this real life story in a cartoon on his website. I wonder if some of you might have heard the story on NPR this week? It aired with this disclaimer…”it’s not funny.”
On June 18th, 1947, on a Pan Am flight from Calcutta to New York, an engine stopped working, which caused another engine to overheat, which caused a fire, which caused a panic.
While the pilot attempted to land the plane, the 25-year-old co-pilot unbuckled himself. He went into the main cabin to help with the passengers. He sat next to a young woman who was alone. He told her it was going to be OK. He told her this as he watched the engine continue to burn. He told her this as he watched it fall from the wing. He told her this as fuel lines became exposed, fire overtook the aircraft, and the plane pitched downward. He told her this knowing that every single person on that plane was about to die.
The plane hit hard, crashing into the Syrian Desert. Fourteen people died instantly. Two crew members survived, including the copilot. And with a pair of broken ribs, he went back into the burning plane, pulling survivors from the wreckage.
Morning arrived, but a rescue did not. The co-pilot took charge and formed two search parties. They eventually found the village, a village which had a radio. A call was made, and the 22 survivors were rescued. As for the co-pilot, the crash changed him. After that, he didn’t want to be a pilot anymore. He wanted to do something different with his life. He resigned from Pan Am to pursue a career in writing and, ultimately, television. His name was Gene Roddenberry, and he created Star Trek.
This story is not intended as an ode to Roddenberry, although he certainly deserves one. Prior to working in television, he was a decorated World War II pilot, a plane-crash investigator, and an L.A. cop. He survived three plane crashes. This story is intended to show you that our journeys are short. Roddenberry saw life’s ephemeral nature lit up against a backdrop of stars. He saw that we are all passengers pitching downward into the night. He saw that we’re all helpless. So get up, and help someone.
In this life, we do not end up where we began. The truth is that Jesus Christ is leading each one of us, not in a downward pitch, but in a rising to new life. And that is the hope we cling to here at WPC: God is directing our history, unfolding it before us. Faith in Jesus Christ tells us that our past, present, and future are all held in care by God, and that one day things will be set to right, when, as JRR Tolkien famously quips, “everything that is sad comes untrue.” So because this is our story, we can… “get up, and help someone.”
Download the entire transcript: Philippians 1 3-11 The Savior at the Center…And the Edges
