Acts 2:1-21 (NRSV)
Revelation 1:8 (King James’ Version)

Gordon E. Ellis
June 4, 2006

ONLY   GOD   CAN   WRITE   A   PERIOD

            Friends, TODAY I want to talk with you about PUNCTUATION.  There are LOTS of kinds of punctuation.  There’s the COMMA and the QUESTION mark, the COLON, the SEMI-COLON, the EXCLAMATION point and MORE.  And WE, human beings, are allowed to write EVERY single ONE of them, and write them as OFTEN as we WISH -- ALL except ONE.  And the ONE form of punctuation that we are NOT allowed to WRITE is the EASIEST one of ALL to write.  It’s the PERIOD, which is just a DOT!  But, you SEE: AFTER that DOT, there IS no more.  And SO, the PERIOD is VERY powerful.  And BECAUSE it’s so powerful, it is RESERVED for GOD!  Only GOD can write a PERIOD!

            Let me explain.  I did not DO very well in MIDDLE school.  I went to public school through grade 9, and COUNSELORS were telling me and my parents that I should go to TRADE school to learn a TRADE.  My PARENTS, however, would NEVER be CONTENT until I went to COLLEGE.  So, AFTER grade 9, they had me apply to a PREP school, Northfield Mount Hermon School.  And THAT meant taking TESTS and writing essays; and needless to say, I didn’t DO very well.  SO, Northfield Mount Hermon was very LEERY about ACCEPTING me.  In fact, it was ONLY because I was good at FOOTBALL that they ACCEPTED me at all.  However, in order to GO there, I would need to REPEAT grade 9, and even then, be accepted ONLY on probation.  Well eventually, I DID graduate from Northfield Mount Hermon, but I did NOT have a STELLAR academic career.  In SPITE of my parents FORCING me to study, distraction-free, from 6:00pm to 10:00pm EVERY night, I ended up graduating 200^th out of 203 in my class.  However, just GRADUATING from one of the nation’s TOP prep schools, OPENED college DOORS for me, and I attended Springfield College.  Well, I don’t know whether it was the TRAINING that I had received at Northfield Mount Hermon, or my DEFIANCE of my father’s prediction that I would crash and burn in college, or my FEAR of having my summer job (which was moving FURNITURE) become PERMANENT, or my REFUSAL to be DRAFTED into the MILITARY after losing 2 FRIENDS in Vietnam, OR the fact that GOD was already beginning to MOVE me toward MINISTRY, but beginning with my SECOND semester in college (we don’t want to TALK about my FIRST semester, OK?) – but beginning with my SECOND semester of college, I began to EXCEL!  I graduated Magna Cum Laude and was accepted into YALE for my MASTER’S degree.  Well at YALE, I began getting HEADACHES from ALL the required READING, so I went to an EYE doctor.  And THAT’S when I FIRST learned that I have an EYE problem AND a LEARNING disability.  And WHAT a difference the GLASSES made!  But IMAGINE: I might NEVER have gone to COLLEGE, IF we had LISTENED to my middle school COUNSELORS, who were trying to write a PERIOD on my capabilities!  THANKFULLY, however, only GOD can write a PERIOD!  And GOD had a DIFFERENT plan for MY life!  And it’s a GOOD thing, because we need GOOD tradesmen, and I’m ALL thumbs when it comes to working with my HANDS!  I would have made a TERRIBLE tradesman!

            Yes, ONLY God can write a PERIOD!  As the Book of Revelation SAYS: GOD is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the END!  GOD is the CREATOR, sustainer and CONCLUSION of ALL of creation!  GOD is the SCULPTOR, who creates our very SOULS, and the SEAMSTRESS, who patterns our hearts with an innate NEED to be in COMMUNION with our MAKER!  Yes, it is GOD who allows 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen to fall in LOVE with each other!  And when they CONSUMMATE their relationship, they give BIRTH to a CHILD named WATER!  Yes, GOD is the one with ALL the power!  And BECAUSE God has so much power, ONLY God can write a PERIOD!  And it’s VERY important that WE, human beings, understand that WE only have LIMITED power.  In other words, you and I are CAPABLE of writing only CERTAIN kinds of punctuation, but NEVER a PERIOD!

            We ARE, for example, allowed to write a QUESTION mark, which SIGNIFIES that something is UNKNOWN.  In fact, when EVERY child is BORN, we NEED to write a QUESTION mark after that child’s NAME.  After all: WE don’t know WHO that child is going to BECOME, and so WE have no RIGHT to place a PERIOD there, no matter WHERE that child was born, no matter what COLOR or GENDER that child IS, and no matter WHAT that child’s PARENTS have DONE.  Only GOD can write a PERIOD!  And in our relationships, we ALSO need to write a QUESTION mark.  Some of you got so EXCITED when you first fell in LOVE.  YOU thought you were marrying Prince CHARMING, but you found out LATER that you married Freddy Kruegger!  OTHERS of you thought you were marrying the QUEEN of your heart when you REALLY married The WICKED Witch of the West!  You see: you and I can write a QUESTION mark, but NEVER a PERIOD.  Only GOD has THAT much power!

            And if there’s ANYTHING that I would like to SAY to our Confirmation Class, or to ANY of us, it is THIS: Do NOT write a PERIOD next to your OWN or anyone ELSE’S name.  You can write a comma!  You can write a question mark!  You can write a colon!  BUT, do NOT write a PERIOD, because you never KNOW where LIFE, or GOD, will take any ONE of us.  If you had told ME, EVEN when I was 24 years OLD, that I would become a MINISTER and BE a minister for 30 years, I would have LAUGHED in your FACE!  No, don’t EVER write a PERIOD next to your OWN or anybody ELSE’S name, because God LOVES to take OUR periods and CHANGE them into COMMAS!  God LOVES to REMIND us that ONLY God can write a PERIOD!  When Jesus was CRUCIFIED, the political and religious authorities THOUGHT that they had written a PERIOD -- END of story.  But lo and behold, 3 days later, God CHANGED their period into a COMMA -- and the story CONTINUED!

            The first PENTECOST was the SAME thing!  EVERYBODY thought that the story was OVER, that a PERIOD had been written on the followers of Jesus.  His DISCIPLES were HIDING like scared rabbits, HIDING behind LOCKED doors.  This was 50 DAYS after Jesus had RISEN!  For almost 2 MONTHS, they HID themselves away, AFRAID of getting what JESUS had gotten.  HOWEVER, they were NOT just HIDING; they were also WAITING.  Somehow they BELIEVED Jesus when He said that ONLY God can write a PERIOD!  And they believed the PROMISE of Jesus: that there would be something MORE for them!  And so, OPEN to God’s Holy Spirit, and even PRAYING for God’s Holy Spirit, they WAITED those 50 days!  And SURE enough, on PENTECOST, God’s Holy Spirit CAME!  And it was LOUD and CLEAR!  And it lit a FIRE under those disciples, and they BURST forth from behind those locked doors!  They BURST forth from their room of FEAR!  And they began TELLING the whole WORLD about JESUS, ALL those people they had been so FEARFUL of before!  You see: GOD had CHANGED the world’s PERIOD into a COMMA -- and the disciples’ FEAR into COURAGE!

            Yes, ONLY God can write a PERIOD, and we SEE it all the time!  A number of years ago, the people who sponsor the Augusta National, one of GOLF’S greatest tournaments, said that people of a certain COLOR, or a certain GENDER, could not PARTICIPATE in that tournament.  PERIOD!  But EVERY time WE use a PERIOD to try to KEEP someone’s CAPACITY down to certain LEVEL, or to perpetuate an INJUSTICE, GOD (IN God’s TIME) sends STRANGE and interesting people to CHANGE our periods into COMMAS.  God DOESN’T send an earthquake or a flood to CHANGE us.  No, God sends PEOPLE!  And in THIS case, God sent a TIGER!  God said: Take out your DRIVER, Tiger, and KNOCK that PERIOD out of the way!  Let those people KNOW that only I can write a PERIOD, for I am the Alpha and the Omega, the BEGINNING and the END!  ONLY One who is omniscient and omnipresent can write a PERIOD, and that’s ME!  SO, the Augusta National was OPENED to ALL!

            Friends, our LIVES would be SO much HAPPIER and more FULFILLING, IF we would only LEARN our LIMITATIONS!  Human beings are ALLOWED to write almost EVERY form of punctuation there IS, but we HAVE to STOP trying to write PERIODS, because THAT is GOD’S job!

            A colleague of mine has been working with one of our nation’s BEST college basketball players, but the kid is FAILING physics.  So he told him: if YOU can play BASKETBALL, son, physics ought to be EASY!  The kid said: What do you MEAN?  He said: Listen!  If you can take a spherical object called a BASKETBALL that is 33 inches in circumference and BOUNCE it down a court that has the physical dimensions of 92 feet long by 54 feet wide, bouncing it roughly 5 to 6 times every 7 to 8 seconds, moving at roughly 7 to 8 miles per hour, and then jump 40 inches vertically and 7 feet horizontally up to a basket that is 10 feet high, and DUNK the ball, then YOU are PHYSICS in MOTION!  BUT, IF you allow the WORLD to TELL you that you are NOT capable of learning PHYSICS, you will ALWAYS live UP to the expectations of the WORLD and NOT what GOD intends for you!  You CAN do physics, my young friend!

            Friends, NEVER write a PERIOD on your OWN or anyone ELSE’S life.  ONLY God can write a PERIOD.  REMEMBER that, and OPEN yourself to God’s SPIRIT, and you WILL have LIFE!  Amen.

(With thanks to my colleague, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III)