A Pre-Confirmation Sermon on Acts 2: 42-47
Some say what happened between 3.27 and 3.31 on 15th
January 2009 was a miracle. What
happened during those three and a half short minutes was so incredible, seemed
so unlikely, there was no other word for it.
Minutes before 3.27, US Airways flight AA 242 had taken off
from LaGuardia airport in New York, bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a full flight with 150 passengers and
five crew, including pilot Chelsey Sullenberger, or ‘Sully’.
Flight AA 242 had taken off on time. Accelerating along one of LaGuardia’s twin
runways, it reached a speed of 170 mph and began its ascent.
Sully contacted air traffic control, informed them he had
reached an altitude of 700 ft and a speed of 230 mph, and he received clearance
to continue to 15,000 ft.
It would be dangerous for one Canadian goose to be sucked
into an engine. It would be darn unlucky
for two. But at 3.27, over the Bronx,
that plane hit a whole flock of geese.
The angle of the ascending plane and the speed of the geese in flight
were just at right combination – a one in ten million chance – for the whole
flock to be sucked into not one engine but both engines.
Both engines failed immediately. The geese were instantaneously liquefied,
turned to what air-crash investigators call ‘bird slurry’. Eeeeuuughhh.
Pilot Sully contacts air traffic control. ‘Mayday, mayday. Hit birds.
Lost thrust in both engines. Need
emergency landing at LaGuardia.’
Air traffic control acted in seconds, clearing both runways.
3.28. Sully glances
at the controls and information on the flight deck. No thrust.
Not enough altitude. A turn and
glide won’t get him to LaGuardia.
‘Air traffic control, air traffic control, do you read
me? LaGuardia not viable. Requesting New Jersey.’
Air traffic control only takes seconds to reply:
‘Affirmative, turn right 8-2-0, land at runway one, Teterboro, New Jersey.’
But Sully’s mind is doing the sums, calculating the distances,
the velocities, the forces and the angles.
‘Negative, Air Traffic Control, we’ll be in the Hudson
River.’
‘Say again, say again?!’
3.28. With no thrust,
Sully begins the glide towards New York’s biggest river. Between him and the landing spot is the
George Washington Bridge. Sullenberger
clears the bridge with just feet to spare.
3.30. Sully makes his
only announcement to passengers: ‘Brace for impact – brace, brace!’
3.31. Sully raises
the nose of the plane. He knows that, if
the water is choppy and the wing tip touches a wave, the whole plane will
cartwheel. Travelling at 150 mph, with
no power, no engines to counteract gravity, US flight AA242 completes an
emergency landing on the River Hudson, just three and a half minutes after its
take-off from LaGuardia.
Passengers remain calm.
Some swim away in the freezing water, others wait to be rescued by boat.
All 150 passengers and five crew are alive. Around half are treated for minor injuries
such as scratches and bruises, the rest are unharmed.
+++++
So was it a miracle?
In a way, yes it was.
But I think there’s a better explanation for the amazing actions of
pilot Sully.
You see, Sully had been in the skies for over 40 years. Before that, he’d studied physics and
mathematics. Then he trained hard at
aviation college. He spent hours
practising manoeuvres, in a simulator, day after day. The habit stuck, and even after he got his
pilot’s license, Sully continued to practice manoeuvres under all sorts of
difficult conditions.
Sully didn’t save the day because of a bolt out of the
blue. It was the natural outcome of
years of discipline.
+++++
Our Bible reading tells us what the first Christians
did. They devoted themselves to four
things: the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, breaking bread together, and
the prayers. (Repeat and enumerate)
The apostles’ teaching.
The CofI is an apostolic church.
We trace our beginnings right back to those first Christians at
Pentecost 2000 years ago, and we try to follow that same pattern. Lots of things change, but the apostles’
teaching stays the same.
The apostles – people like Matthew and John, Peter and Paul,
wrote their teachings in the New Testament.
They are summarised in the Apostles’ Creed.
If you read the Bible regularly, and soak up its teachings,
you never know when you might need a miracle – and all those years of reading
the Bible will kick in, like Sully’s aviation training, and help you out in a
crisis.
The second thing is fellowship. Meeting together and sharing our lives. The step of confirmation isn’t one to be
taken alone, just like the rest of the Christian life is a life together. You have the support of parents and
godparents. You have become a tight
little group over the past year. We’d
love you to keep meeting together and supporting one another – perhaps at
Xplore or Saturday Night Live. And as
part of the church, we want to see you at worship with all the Christian
family, old and young, on a regular basis.
The third thing is breaking bread. We need food on a long, challenging
journey. And Holy Communion sustains us
on life’s journey. Make a commitment to
receive Holy Communion regularly. The
minimum really is once a month, just to stay spiritually alive. To be spiritually healthy, more often is far
better.
And finally, the prayers.
Not ‘prayer’ but ‘the prayers’.
The first Christians prayed set Jewish prayers in the Temple, morning
and evening. Soon, distinctive Christian
prayers developed.
Pray every day. Make
it the habit of a lifetime. There’s a
simple form of daily prayer in the inside cover of the BCP. You can download an app like Daily Prayer or
Sacred Space. You can use a booklet like
Our Daily Bread. Whatever works best for
you – but do it daily.
+++++
If you devote yourselves to these same disciplines as the
first Christians, you’ll be like pilot Sully.
One day, there will be a crisis and you’ll need a
miracle. You’ll fail an exam, or not get
the job you want. You’ll make a big mistake
and have regrets. You’ll have a blazing
row with your husband or wife. You’ll
lose someone you love very dearly. These
things happen to us all.
But if your life has been one devoted to the teachings of
the Bible, taking part in church, Holy Communion and prayer, you’ll find that
when the crisis comes, you know what to do.
Something inside you, someone inside you, will correct your course, keep
you level, bring you to safety.
