Did you listen to the scripture that Carol read? It tells of some of the victories of Peter and the apostles shortly after the Day of Pentecost. It has a rather strange story about how the people so revered Peter they thought that if his shadow just fell on them they would be healed.
We are all familiar with the old rhyme:
I have a little shadow
That goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him
Is more than I can see.
If a shadow won’t heal you, what use is it? It is an unsubstantial nothing that we cast upon the ground on a sunny day. In Eastern lands a person's shadow has more meaning and significance than here among us. For example, in India a high caste Brahman would throw away his food if the shadow of an untouchable, an outcast, passed over it.. The shadow of some people was thought to be contaminated. On the other hand, when Mahatma Gandhi was alive, people would maneuver themselves to have his shadow fall on them.
In New Testament times people believed that a good man carried with him a healing influence. So they pressed in as close to Peter and his fellow missionaries as they could get in hope that the shadow of a good man might fall on them and heal them.
WHILE THIS IDEA IS ALMOST WHOLLY SUPERSTITIOUS, IT IS SYMBOLIC OF A FACT THAT IS NOT SUPERSTITIOUS. It is a fact that every one of us does cast some kind of shadow that heals or hurts, that blesses or blights. Your shadow is your influence -- the effect that you have on other people. You can no more keep from exerting an influence than you can keep from casting a shadow on a sunny day. Your influence goes in and out with you like a shadow. You cannot throw a stone in a swimming pool without causing ripples that reach out in widening circles until they touch the edge. Every person causes ripples of influence that widen out until they touch the shores of infinity.
Now this is a fact that we don't think about often enough. INFLUENCE is something that is constantly going out from us - silent, invisible forces that lay hold on other people's lives. It may shape their thoughts; it may mold their opinions. Influence can lift others up in inspiration or pull them down in depression. We are all tremendously affected by shadows. We are affected by what other people say and do. Others are affected by what we say or do -- for good or for evil. It is an invisible pull of one life upon another life.
I remember when I was a teen-ager there was a practical joke we used to try out. I guess all of you have done it.. Three or four of us would step out into the street and look up into the top of some building and keep looking as if something remarkable were happening. The fun was that people walking by would stop and start looking up, too. The success of the game was in getting as many people as we could to stop and look.
That is always happening, too, isn't it? It happens every time someone starts a fad, whether its shaved heads, long hair, miniskirts, $200 tennis shoes, or body jewelry in ears, nose, mouth, navel. One eccentric person influences another and soon there is a chain of people all doing the same thing because of one person's example. Sometimes it gets into the serious matter of moral choices.
Let me read you a Biblical example of this from the 21st chapter of John -- one where Peter is once again the principal actor. It is after the resurrection of Jesus:
"Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing."
"We will go with you" THAT'S A GOOD ILLUSTRATION OF INFLUENCE. "We will go with you" -- "me, too." One person by example can make or break the morale of any organization, whether it's a choir, a young people's group, a church or a city! There are those whose character brightens everyone by just joining a group. There are also those whose presence casts a gloomy pall on any group where they are present.
No one can be mean and hateful without taking someone along with them. No one can be true to Christ without taking someone along with them. "We will go with you"
Ripples, shadows - how long is your shadow? There are some things about this shadow of ours -- this force of influence -- about which we need to be constantly reminded..
FIRST, INFLUENCE IS FOR THE MOST PART UNCONSCIOUS. There is much more in it than is visible to the eye. You are not conscious of your shadow as you walk down the street, and you hardly ever think of the influence that goes out from your life. It's a bit like the sunshine itself. The sun isn't conscious of going into the trees and grass and flowers, yet every moment its energy is silently, invisibly entering every living thing on earth. Influence is an energy that is silent and invisible and unconscious. We sometimes forget that. We sometimes think we wield an influence by intention -- by a kind of special performance.
Ministers have a difficult time with this. We get to thinking about influencing others and we think it is done primarily through the pulpit. We spend a lot of time preparing sermons to try to influence people to be loving and kind . And then at some point it dawns on us that the greatest influence we have on our people is how we relate to others at board meetings and fellowship suppers. And sometimes our influence there is not so good.
Parents have the same kind of problem. One day they get to thinking about what they should be doing for their children. The kids are growing up fast, and it's about time to set them a good example. So they put on a special performance for their benefit. They go to church, or get interested in Sunday School, and they have a heart-to-heart talk about being honest, clean, believing in God, etc. And they think, "There now we have influenced our children." And they have. All of it has value -- but it is the very smallest part of influence. By far the largest part is unconscious; It's what goes on without our intention.. What is really talking to your children is not the speech you made when you were trying to impress them, but your casual conversation when you're not.
IN OTHER WORDS, IT'S THE SHADOW THAT REALLY DOES IT -- THAT SILENT "LITTLE SHADOW THAT GOES IN AND OUT WITH ME."
When I was preaching at Bethany Christian Church, we had a first-time visitor come with her beautiful little daughter about four years old. I was greeting everyone at the door after the worship service, with special attention to the young mother. Then I knelt down to shake the hand of the little girl. "Are you God?’ she asked. I didn’t think I heard her. "Are you God?" she persisted. Believe me, in spite of the people in line waiting to greet me, I took a little time to talk to that little girl. The mother later told me that it was their very first time to attend church. Before leaving home she told the girl that they were going to "God’s house." The little girl looked around and I seemed to be the one that "owned the house," so I must be God. You think that doesn't make your day? And do you think that doesn't make you afraid of your shadow?
I heard a policeman speak at a safety meeting. He told the parents present: "You may drive down the street one day in excess of the speed limit and tell your son, 'Keep your eyes peeled for the cops."' Then he went on, "If you discredit the law in the eyes of your son, you shouldn't be surprised if one day he should break it -- and with it your heart!"
Here is a poem written by a father who really understood the importance of shadows:
However humble a place I may hold
Or lowly the trails I trod,
There's a child who bases his faith on me,
There's a dog who thinks I am God.
Lord, keep me worthy, Lord keep me clean,
And fearless and unbeguiled.
Lest I lose caste in the sight of the dog,
And the wide clear eyes of the child.
Lest there come in the years to be
The blight of a withering grief,
And a little dog mourn for a fallen god,
And a child for his lost belief.
How long is your shadow?
ANOTHER THING ABOUT INFLUENCE -- IT IS ALMOST IMMORTAL. -It has a lasting quality. It lives beyond the life that creates it. We have seen how one person influences a second, the second a third, and the third a fourth, and thus the shadow gets lengthened, and the living chain continues 'till the end of time.
Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, many years ago, wrote: "I am a part of all that I have met," -- and I would add -- "even those I have not met." We pick up something from everyone, living and dead. A person's death does not destroy their influence
Did you know that you are being influenced by thousands of people whom you don't know? For example, they gave the money to make this building a place that speaks of reverence for God? Many people, through the wills that leave money to the causes for which they have a concern, continue to have a shadow that lengthens with the years.
The apostle Paul is still living through his influence that reaches to us today. Elvis Pressley really is alive! And the things you said and did many years ago, things you may have long ago forgotten, are still living and making an influence and impact on the world today. You never know where the shadow will fall. You never know how far the ripple will reach
In the church office I have bound copies of all the newsletters, the Banners, for the twenty-five years I have served Central. Since I will soon be leaving Central, I have spent a nostalgic time reading some of the old volumes and was amazed about how many people who have affected my life -- and yours! Listen to a few of the names of people I have been reading about and remembering: JEFFIE LOU GREEN, JEAN PENNINGTON, HENRY HURY, BURNEY HUMPHREY, CLARA BROMMER, RACHEL TURRI, AGNES MERRITT, AMY LINDEMAN, CLAUDIA CARLS, CHRIS SHELTON, MAURINE BRISENDINE, JOHN MARSHALL, SHIRLEY DODD, BILL HEWLETT, MAURICE POPPENHEIMER, JANET HOPPMANN, H.D. & AZILEE DUPREE, MARGUERITE HEWLETT, JACK RAGLAND, ALBERT O’KELLY, JEAN BRADLEY, ROSE GILLESPIE, BILL HICKMAN, MARY ARTMAN, J.R. JOHNSON, JAMES STARR, GLADYS NEEL, EDWINTA JOHNSON, ART MARTIN, MICHELLE YOUNG, PAUL ADAMS, MAC HURY, JO KATE MITCHELL.
These are just a few of the people I have been remembering and who have influenced me. You newer members may not have recognized any of them, but one point of this sermon is that you HAVE been influenced by them, too. They have made a difference in your life; they have made a difference in your community; they have made a difference in your world. Hey, these are some of the men and women whose shadow has made a difference. For good or for evil, they have affected my life.
I have a little shadow
That goes in and out with me.
And what can be the use of him,
Is more than I can see.
The rhyme is exactly right. The use of the shadow is more that we can see -- infinitely more than we can see.
ONE FINAL THING ABOUT INFLUENCE. IT IS IRREVOCABLE. That is, once exerted it can never be changed or recalled. A person may change their business, their residence, their nationality, their name -- but the influence that has gone out from them into other lives cannot be changed. A man or a woman can even change themselves, may start today to be a better person, to be a better influence, but that will not change the lives they have helped to fashion.
SO, MY BELOVED PEOPLE, INFLUENCE IS UNCONSCIOUS, IT IS ALMOST IMMORTAL AND IT IS IRREVOCABLE. It can be so dangerous, but it can also do so much good.
How long is your shadow?
Let me close with a quotation from Phillips Brooks. "No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gently, pure and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of goodness."
