April 26, 2020 - The Journey: Packing for the Journey

You can view the worship service and this message at the following links - 

https://vimeo.com/412110236

https://www.facebook.com/david.p.charlton.9/videos/10163458875015298/UzpfSTcyOTY1NTI5NzoxMDE2MzQ1OTIwNjY4MDI5OA/

     

I have mentioned before that I tend to overpack when I travel.  Just a little bit.  Just a little.  I have with me this morning the suitcases I need when I travel – for a weekend trip.  You might think this would be overpacking, but in my view, it’s called being prepared.  What if you plan to go for a weekend, but end up staying for two weeks? Who’s going to be prepared?  I am.  If I had to carry all of this with me, however, wherever I went, I might pack differently.  What I do carry is my backpack, which is my carryon bag when I fly.  I carry this through the airports, and it does get really heavy.  By the time I load some books, magazines, iPad, laptop, and a bunch of other stuff in it, the weight really adds up, and gives me a shoulder and backache.

     

This morning, as we continue the series of messages, The Journey, the title of today’s message is Packing for the Journey.  The passage that serves as our Scripture text is one that is part of a larger passage that teaches us about the Passover.  Historically speaking, the Passover was, and remains, one of the most significant events in Judaism.  The first Passover was the final act of the struggle between Pharaoh, Moses, and God. It was the Passover event that finally moved Pharaoh to let the people go, sending them off into the wilderness and on to their journey to the Promised Land.

     

As the people prepared for their exit from Egypt, one of the elements of the Passover was the unleavened bread.  The unleavened bread was a symbol of the haste in which the people left Egypt.  There was no time to wait on the yeast to rise, so the unleavened bread became, for all time, the symbol of the hasty departure from Egypt.  Leaving in haste, the people did not have time to gather much in terms of material belongings.  Traveling through the wilderness meant it would be very difficult to take much with them. Very quickly, the people had to determine what must absolutely needed.  Imagine what it would be like, being in a position where you had to determine what you absolutely needed and what would be left behind, and doing so in a very, very short amount of time.  Each person could, after all, only carry a certain amount, so making the determination between what was essential and nonessential was of critical importance.

     

I’m not sure how well I would have functioned in that situation, as I really struggle when it comes to leaving anything behind.  If, however, I knew I could only take what I was able to carry, it would be much, much easier to make the decision of what was necessary and what was expendable.  But even though we are not taking the kind of journey that requires us to pack any bags, we are, nonetheless, on this journey, through this pandemic that has upended life in so many ways.  As we continue our journey through this time of difficulty, we have to decide what is essential to us.

     

In Disciples churches, we are very fond of the saying, in essentials unity, opinions liberty, and all things love.  That’s a great saying, but there is one big problem with it as well – how do we determine what is an essential and what is a non-essential, and who gets to make that determination?  That question has sparked quite a bit of debate in recent weeks, in discussions about what constitutes essential and non-essential businesses.  But for the Hebrew people, stepping out of Egypt and into the wilderness, it was a very practical and existential question they faced. What did they absolutely need on their journey, and what would be left behind?

     

Hear now our Scripture text, which comes from Exodus 12:17, 20, 31-34, 40-41– 

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.  Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 

 ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.

³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go.  And also bless me.”

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” 

³⁴ So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.

⁴⁰ Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. 

⁴¹ At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.

So what are the essentials that we must take on our journey?  I made a list, that grew to be quite lengthy, so I pared that list down to what I considered to be the most essential, which left me with only two, the first of which is – 

     

1.  Community.

     

When this pandemic is over, there are some phrases I hope to never hear again – flattening the curve, we can’t be doing that, and most of all, social distancing.  Who could have imagined those phrases would become part of our cultural lexicon.  I should add at this point, that people have often picked at me because I like to maintain my sense of personal space.  For many years, I have jokingly (mostly joking) extended my arms and asked that people draw an imaginary circle that extends around my arms, and then asked that they not enter into that space.  Well, as it turns out, guess who has been not only ahead of the curve, but flattening the curve, all these years?  (Would someone put a laughing emoji in the comment section please?  James, does our streaming system have a built-in laugh track?). I’ve been practicing social distancingall my life!  And guess what?  Now I’m really tired of it!  You very kindly sent in your pictures that are taped to the chairs so that David, James, and I wouldn’t feel so alone here, and we appreciate it very much.  And connecting electronically is okay, isn’t it?  We are all very grateful for the various technologies that allow us to connect – because imagine what it would be like living through this pandemic without it – but it’s not the same as being together, is it?

     

We need connectivity.  We need community.  We were created by God to live in connection with one another.  We were created by God to be in community.  That need for connectivity is one of the reasons why God gave us the gift of the church, a gift we have missed so much in these now seven weeks of being closed.  Seven weeks. That’s unbelievable, isn’t it?   

     

If you have been confined to home, it is very probable that you have everything you need.  Theoretically, at least.  You can have food, medicine; whatever you need in terms of your physical body.  But what is it like, being at home without human contact?  Without the opportunity to be with your family?  Your friends?  Your church?  Ask the people in nursing homes and assisted living centers, confined to their rooms, if they have everything they need.  Yes, they do, but at the same time, no, they don’t.  While we need the tangible items, such as food and shelter, we also need the intangibles just as much, and perhaps even more.

     

Acts chapter 20 tells us of Paul’s departure from Ephesus, as he bid farewell to the elders of the church there. Paul had been with them for three years, and they had grown very close.  Luke writes at the end of the chapter these words – when Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.  They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.  What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again.  Then they accompanied him to the ship(Acts 20:36-38).  I find that scene to be very touching.  Later, in his letter to the Philippian church Paul writes these words at the beginning – every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God(Philippians 1:3).  As Paul sat in his place of confinement, under arrest by the Romans, he thought about the many people who meant so much to him, and he thanked God for the gift of those relationships.  Let us think also of Jesus and the twelve disciples, and the time they spent together.  Jesus picked the twelve for a number of reasons, chief among them, I believe, for the provision of fellowship, connection, and community.  Jesus knew they would need one another, and that certainly proved to be true.

     

As the people wandered through the wilderness, they needed one another.  Now, to be honest, sometimes there was a bit too much togetherness.  We all know how it can be when you have a group of people together; things can sometimes get interesting. In the best of circumstances, people don’t always get along.  In a crisis, well, things can get very interesting.  One of the themes of the journey of the people in the wilderness was their near-constant grumbling and complaining to Moses and Aaron.  A crisis can bring people together or pull them apart.  In the course of their wandering through the wilderness, there was some of both.  But ultimately, it was the wilderness that fashioned them into a people, a community, and into a nation.

Faith.

     

That’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? But how often do we say, in times of difficulty, this is really testing my faith?  A time of difficulty might become a test of faith, but I don’t believe this time of difficulty or others are inflicted upon us by God as a test. 

     

Faith is a gift that helps us to navigate our way through difficulty; it is not an insurance policy against difficulty.  I have said on more than one occasion, but it is always worth repeating, that faith is not a magic formula for creating a trouble-free life.  In fact, faith can complicate our lives in some ways, because faith will ask of us what is not easy, it will compel us to accept and live truths that go against our natural instincts.  Being asked to love our enemies is not simple, is it?  To give of our time and resources is not always easy, is it?  Wouldn’t it be easier to live our lives according to what we want, not getting entangled in the needs and difficulties of others?  It might be, in some ways, but faith pushes us to do what is not only best for us, but best for others as well.

     

We could all use an extra portion of faith right now.  As we see the numbers of those infected by the virus, as we see the death toll rise, as we see the millions entering the unemployment line, as we see the scores of businesses shuttered, we can’t help but feel uneasy, and in the need of an extra measure of faith.

     

For the Hebrew people, to wander into the desert, to endure all the hardships of the wilderness, and to travel to a land they had never seen but knew to be as the land of promise, that took a lot of faith.  Sometimes, the faith of the people stumbled, as we saw several weeks ago when we studied the passage about the golden calf, when Moses was on the mountain and the people came to Aaron, asking for a god they could see (Exodus chapter 32).  What they failed to understand is that faith does not require the necessity of seeing what is around every band.  Faith does not require that every question be answered before taking a step.  Faith does not require definitive proof in order to take away every doubt.  Faith becomes its own way of seeing, it becomes its own answer, and it becomes its own proof.  It is a great temptation to ask,what is ahead, what is around the next bend, how do we know, where is the proof, and a hundred other questions. Faith, however, continues whether or not we have the answers, it continues regardless of our fears, and it holds up to every crisis that comes our way. 

     

When we talk about packing for our journey – our journey of faith – we are really talking about intangibles rather than tangible items.  In fact, these suitcases right here, the ones I so like to fill with clothes and other items I take with me on a trip, are not at all what we need for our faith journey.  We don’t need to pack items; what we need to do is to unpack. We often speak metaphorically of baggage.  We will say of someone, they are carrying around a lot of baggage.  When we make that remark, it comes with the implication that the person has things in their life that they need to let go of.

     

So I will close with the question, what will we unpack for the journey?  To walk our journey of faith, what do we need to unpack, what do we need to leave behind, in order to move forward?  As the Hebrew people left Egypt, they very quickly had to decide what was essential and what was nonessential, what they would take and what they would leave behind.  I wonder, what will we leave behind as we journey through this unprecedented time?

     

Think about what you need to unpack.  Think about what has been weighing you down, what has been a burden to you, and unpack it. Is it fear, anxiety, uncertainty, doubt? These, and perhaps many, many more. To take our journey of faith, what is it we need to unload from our shoulders?  What burden needs to be lifted from our hearts?  What do we need to leave behind, in order to move forward? As the Hebrew people left Egypt, they very quickly had to decide what was essential and what was nonessential, what they would take, and what they would leave behind.  I wonder, what will we leave behind?  What do we need to leave behind?  What do we need to unpack as we journey through this unprecedented time? Think about what has been weighing you down, and unpack them.  Think about what has been burden to you, and unpack them.  Take them off your shoulders.  It is so wearying to carry what should have been left behind long ago. We all carry things we should have unpacked, that we should have set aside, long ago.  Don’t take another step of your journey without letting them go. Come to me, Jesus said, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light(Matthew 11:28-30).  I believe we are all looking for something that is light and easy to carry.  Before this pandemic struck, we were all carrying enough; we were all carrying more than we needed to carry.  Since it has begun, I fear we have all added even more burdens to ourselves – burdens of fear, anxiety, and so much more.  We have allowed more to weigh on our hearts and minds, and we must unpack them.  Let us set them aside, and receive the peace, the comfort, and the strength of God.

April 19, 2020 - The Journey: A Test of Trust

Video of the service from which this sermon comes can be viewed here - https://vimeo.com/user38606035

Or on Facebook, here - https://www.facebook.com/david.p.charlton.9/videos/10163406359010298/UzpfSTcyOTY1NTI5NzoxMDE2MzQwNjc4NzUwMDI5OA/

A group of four high school friends were on their way to school one morning when they decided to drive around a little longer, causing them to miss their first class.  They decided they would tell their teacher they were late because they had a flat tire, thinking this would be a great alibi.  Arriving just as the class had ended, they told their teacher their tale, and then started down the hall to their next class.  The teacher, however, insisted they come into the classroom to take a test. Protesting that they didn’t have enough time, the teacher said, oh, this will only take a minute, as there is only one question on the test.  So they walked into the room, where the teacher seated them in the four corners of the room, just in case they were tempted to help out one another.  Giving them each a pencil and a piece of paper, the teacher then said, here is you question – which tire was flat?  That’s a rather brilliant test, isn’t it?  

     

I assumed that I was done with tests once I finished school, but I quickly found I was wrong.  It’s not just school that has tests; life gives us tests quite often, and those tests can be quite difficult, as we have found in recent weeks.

     

Continuing with our series of messages called The Journey, this morning we come to chapter sixteen of the book of Exodus.  In this chapter, we find, once again, the people coming to Moses and Aaron to complain. And to be fair, they had a legitimate complaint – they were hungry.  Finding the food they needed as they continued their journey was proving to be quite a challenge, as food is rather hard to come by in a desert environment.

     

Hear this morning’s Scripture text, which is selected verses from Exodus 16.

Exodus 16:2-5, 11-18, 32, 34-35 –  

² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 

³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 

⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, 

¹² “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

¹³ That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 

¹⁴ When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 

¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.  Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 

¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”

¹⁷ The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 

¹⁸ And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

³² Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”

³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 

³⁵ The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

This morning’s message is titled A Test of Trust.  I spoke about trust on March 29^thas well, with a sermon titled Trusting God, Trusting Each Other.  I’m speaking about trust again because it is a constant thread that runs through the wilderness wandering.  When you are journeying through such a harsh environment, for such a long time, and with so many obstacles, trust doesn’t suddenly appear as the result of a single lesson.  No, trust becomes a long, difficult lesson.

     

Let’s look at what we can learn about trust as we study this part of the journey of the people through the wilderness.

Lesson 1 – Difficulties Are Often the Result of Human, Not Divine Actions. 

     

In the midst of difficulty, one of our first instincts is to ask not only,why did this happen?but to also ask, who is to blame?  We don’t like the idea that something happens as the result of random processes, so we want to point a finger of blame at someone.  This is what is happening in verses 2 and 3, as we read ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”  The whole community, Exodus tells us, grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  That’s not a pleasant situation for Moses and Aaron. When you become the target of the displeasure and anger of a group of people, that is a tough spot.  But Moses and Aaron were not to blame.  

     

One of the realities that we must acknowledge is the human element in the sufferings and difficulties we experience.  Sometimes there is no one to blame.  Other times, however, there is.  The Hebrew people were in this difficult situation because the Egyptians had enslaved them. It wasn’t Moses and Aaron who had put the people in a place of hardship, but the Egyptians.  Slavery, tragically, has been a harsh and cruel reality in human history almost from the beginning.  We can all agree that no one should ever be enslaved, but our belief that it should happen does not mean it will suddenly disappear, unfortunately.  

     

The Hebrew people had gained their freedom after more than 400 years of enslavement, but that meant they began their journey to freedom from a difficult point.  How do you live as free people when you have no knowledge of what it means to be a free people?  How do you decide what to do when you have been told for more than four centuries what to do and when to do it?  How do you live as free people when you have to spend a generation wandering through the wilderness, wondering where you will find the resources you need in order to live?  In a situation that difficult, you are not worried so much about your freedom as you are worried about where you will get your next meal.

     

The Hebrew people were in a difficult situation that was no fault of their own. They were the descendants of Abraham. Abraham had been promised by God, you’ll remember, that his descendants would number as the sand on the seashore, and they would inherit a land of promise (Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”  Genesis 22:17 – indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore.). They entered Egypt through Joseph, whose story you undoubtedly remember.  The story of Joseph is one of the most fascinating in all of Scripture.  He was favored by his father, Jacob, who gave him a coat of many colors.  His brothers, in a fit of jealousy, sold him into slavery but told their father he had been killed by an animal (Genesis 37:31-33).  Taken to Egypt, Joseph eventually rises to a position of great power and influence, second only to Pharaoh.  Eventually, Joseph brings his father and his brothers and their families to Egypt and life is good.  In fact, life is very good (Genesis chapters 37 – 50).  But then a Pharaoh arose who did not know of Joseph, and he feared the growing numbers of the Hebrews, so he enslaved them.  They had done nothing wrong.  They had committed no crime.  And yet they suffered because of the fear and insecurity of one man; one man who just happened to be the most powerful person in the land (Exodus 1:8-14 – ⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”  ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly).

     

I have said before, and will say again, I do not believe God has inflicted this terrible virus upon mankind.  I believe, in fact, that it is the result of both human action andinaction.  It was human action that created an environment that allowed the virus to enter into the human community and inaction that took a bad situation and made it worse.  Once the virus began to infect people it spread because of the human actions of fear, because of willful ignorance, and because of neglect.  For many years there were warnings about the possibility of a pandemic, and they were largely ignored.  They were mostly ignored for at least several decades, partly out of a false confidence and partly out of politics.  And look at the price now being paid because of that inaction.  This is a pandemic that has incalculable millions teetering on economic ruin.  They are on the edge of financial ruin because of the actions, and inactions, of those who could have done something but did not.  And how many will die before this is all over?  So for those who want to ask God why did this happen, I think humanity needs only to look in a mirror to find the answer as to who is to blame.  God often gets the blame for suffering that actually comes about because of human activity and human actions.

     

And it is not just this pandemic that is evidence of how human actions lead to human suffering.  There are millions of people in our world who go hungry because they live under regimes who make it next to impossible to earn a decent living or to feed their families. There are people who suffer from diseases that can be cured without a lot of money but they live in regions of the world where those medicines are either not available or because even a minimal cost is too much for the people who live in crushing poverty.  There are people who suffer because of state-sponsored violence against their own people, a violence that causes them to flee from their homes and to undergo treacherous journeys in search of safety and freedom.

     

When we fail to recognize that suffering often comes back to the actions, and inactions, of humanity, we are led down the path of bad theology and bad logic. Bad theology will lead us to the prosperity gospel, which says that we simply need to believe and we’ll get what we want and we will be protected from all harm.  If we do not get what we want, or if we fall prey to harm, then we are told we simply did not have enough faith.  That is a very unfortunate point of view, I believe, blaming people for their difficult circumstances, when those circumstances are not of their own making.  But it is attractive to many people because they would rather hold to bad theology than to live with questions that are difficult to answer.  And bad logic leads to the unfortunate and erroneous idea that God is to blame for all the bad that happens, overlooking in the process what is clearly the result of human actions.

Lesson 2 – Difficulties Help To Build Trust in God.

     

Trust is easy, I think we can all agree, when life is good.  When you have everything you need, when life is going along very well, and when life is good, trust is easy, isn’t it?  But can we really call it trust, if everything is going our way? Is it really trust if it is never tested?  Perhaps not.

     

I understand the urge to ask, Dave, what you have to say is all well and good, but what happens when I lose my job?  What happens when I lose my income?  There is all this talk of how “we’re in this together” and “together we’re going to get through this time” and “we’ll win this fight,” but that doesn’t pay my mortgage. While I hear all of these nice sentiments, it doesn’t get me into the nursing home to see my love one.  Can you give me something more substantial, something that will put food on my table and pay my bills?  Will trust do that for me?

     

Well, now we’re talking about the gritty realities of life, aren’t we? I will be very honest and say that it is hard to maintain trust when it seems as though our world is crashing in around us.  How do we trust when we lose our job, when we struggle to pay our bills, and when we find very little hope in the days ahead?  Trust takes on a different meaning and function when you are uncertain about your next meal, your next mortgage payment, and your next car payment.

     

The hardships of the wilderness had the people looking back on their time in Egypt as better than it actually was.  Hindsight might be 20/20, but sometimes hindsight is also highly inaccurate.  The horrors of living as slaves had quickly given way to the trials of the wilderness, especially the need for food. As the stomachs of the people rumbled with hunger, they looked back on their time in Egypt through rose-colored glasses.  There wesat around pots of meat, verse 3 says,and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.  I believe it is safe to assume the people were greatly overstating what life in Egypt had actually been like.  To hear the people speak of that life, it sounds as though they were sitting in front of large, flat panel TVs watching ball games and having picnics all day!  The reality was, they had been slaves, and as slaves, their lives were very difficult.  They had evidently forgotten – or ignored – the harsh realities spoken of in verses 11 – 14 – ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly

     

The people had forgotten an important truth, which is that the journey to a better life is not always easy.  In fact, the journey to a better life can make life temporarily more difficult, rather than better.  I often think about my grandfather’s family, as they set sail from Liverpool, England when my grandfather was a teenager.  They came to this country with very little, and I’m sure it was not easy for them when they arrived.  To build their new lives, completely from scratch, must have been incredibly difficult. I wonder what it was like, as they approached the shores of America, and thought about how they would build a new life. They disembarked from that ship, and faced so many challenges in building a new life.  I think also of the evening when a group of us traveled to the Louisville airport, where we greeted the Burmese family we helped to resettle, working with Kentucky Refugee Ministries to do so.  I remember them walking through the security section, and into the greeting area, and I wondered what they must be thinking.  They needed an interpreter to communicate.  They had no jobs.  They had very few possessions, only what fit into their suitcases.  It was not an easy journey, and it was full of challenges, just as it was for my grandfather and his family.  But in the long run, life was better, even if it was more difficult in the short run.

     

Trust is not a magic formula that will automatically make our lives better.  The lives of the people, wandering through the wilderness, were not easy, and it would be wrong to portray that journey as anything else but difficult.  But trust in God’s provision was what moved them forward, that trust was what saved them from a despair that would have left them to perish in the wilderness, that trust allowed them to draw upon the strength God had placed in their hearts and souls that enabled them to continue on their perilous journey, and it was what kept them from going back to Egypt.  Because here is the reality – the people could have returned to Egypt.  I’m sure Pharaoh would have been very happy to have them back.  I’m sure Pharaoh would have welcomed back this large pool of free labor.  And I’m sure the people of Egypt would have been happy to have them back as well, as they would no longer have to do the work of slaves. The people could have gone back to their pots of meat and to their lives where they knew exactly what would happen each day for the rest of their lives.  But trust moved them forward, away from the security of the known in Egypt and into the unknown of the wilderness.  Trust moved them away from a guarantee of daily bread and into the wilderness, where, early in their journey, they feared they would starve to death.

     

Without difficulties, it is doubtful that we would ever develop a true and meaningful trust in God.  Until we are wandering through our own wilderness, genuine trust never has an opportunity to grow in our hearts, our minds, and our souls.  It is in the wilderness of difficulties and in the desert of struggle that we truly learn how to place our trust in God.  It is in the crucible of suffering that the deepest level of trust is born.

Lesson 3 – Trust Leads Us To Understand the Difference Between a Want and A Need.

     

How much is our relationship with God dependent upon us receiving what we want from God?

     

I’m not sure what the Hebrew people expected when they left Egypt, but they obviously were not prepared for the difficulties they faced and they were not expecting those difficulties.  The wilderness through which the people wandered was a tough, unforgiving environment, and one of the first hardships the people faced was the need to secure food for this large group of people.  God made provision for the people by way of manna in the morning and quail in the evening (that evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor – verses 13-14).

     

God made provision for the people as they wandered through the wilderness, but it wasn’t the equivalent of eating at a restaurant with three Michelin stars.  The idea of quail, to me, is not too bad. But manna; I don’t know. Especially for forty years.  That’s a lot of manna!  I really love shrimp.  I love shrimp if it’s fried, boiled, or however it is fixed (just don’t serve it to me in a casserole!). But would I want to eat shrimp every day, for forty years? I imagine I would get a bit tired of it.

     

But the provision the people received begs the question, what is it that we really need?  I’m not talking about what we want, but what we need. Those are not the same.  Now, honestly, I have a lot in my life that I want, but don’t actually need, as you could see from a glance at our garage, basement, and my closets.

     

As I have said, I do not believe that God has caused this pandemic.  I do, however, believe very strongly in the hand of God working through what is happening, as God always does.  Could God, perhaps, use this time to cause us to think much more carefully about the differences between wants and needs?  Could God be working to bring us to a greater awareness of the needs and the suffering of others?  Every time I find myself complaining about restaurant’s limited carry-out menus or the difficulty of placing a food order online, for instance, I have to ask myself, Dave, how often do you think about the people who not only can’t order something online, but have no options in life to provide their families with food?

     

If you are a listener to Christian radio, you have most likely heard the song Scars, by the band I Am They.  I will quote some of the lyrics to that song, as I find them to have a great deal of meaning, especially in regard to our difficulties.  Life is not easy, and we often resent the difficulties we experience.  Let us remember, however, that through our trust in God those difficulties can teach us many important lessons.  

Scars, by I Am They – 

Waking up to a new sunrise

Looking back from the other side

I can see now with open eyes

Darkest water and deepest pain

I wouldn't trade it for anything

'Cause my brokenness brought me to You

And these wounds are a story You'll use

So I'm thankful for the scars

'Cause without them I wouldn't know Your heart

And I know they'll always tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful for the scars

Now I'm standing in confidence

With the strength of Your faithfulness

And I'm not who I was before

No, I don't have to fear anymore

So I'm thankful for the scars

'Cause without them I wouldn't know Your heart

And I know they'll always tell of who You are

So forever I am thankful for the scars

How is it possible to sing a line about suffering that proclaims I wouldn't trade it for anything? On the surface, such a line seems absurd, but it is not, because our trust in God transforms even our sufferings. This is why we trust in God, because God is worthy of trust, and that trust will transform our lives.

April 12, 2020, Easter Sunday: While It Was Still Dark

Video of this service can be watched at this link - 
https://vimeo.com/406924122?fbclid=IwAR1CJmv-mZCIWOEg6YFGaG1WCIjsKnpugRTWGOKSKEsvivC1UTe18AJs1dY

Who would have thought, just a month ago, that it would not be possible for us to come to church to worship together?  When we canceled services for March 15^th, I assumed we would absolutely be back by Easter.  Although we are growing accustomed to the circumstances in which we find ourselves, I think we all have those moments when we feel as though we are in the middle of a bad dream.  Driving back and forth to the church, with the scarcity of cars on the roads and so many businesses shuttered, I find it to be an almost apocalyptic scene.  How do we celebrate Easter in such circumstances?  How do we find joy when life has become so difficult?

     

To ask such questions is to take us into the minds of the disciples of Jesus, in the hours just before Easter.  Their world had come to a screeching halt, with the horror of the crucifixion.  They were hidden away, hoping they would not be the next ones nailed to a cross.  Could life ever be the same?  Were they experiencing their “new normal”?

     

However different Easter is this year, it is still Easter.  And while some of the elements of Easter are different, there is absolutely nothing about the core message of Easter that has changed.  The same hope is with us today, on this very different Easter, as has been with us on every other Easter.  The same promise of resurrection is with us today, on this very different Easter, as has been with us on every other Easter.

Today’s Scripture text comes from John 20:1-18 – 

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 

⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 

⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 

⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 

⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 

⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 

⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 

¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 

¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 

¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

This morning, I want to focus on the first verse of this passage – in that verse, John says that Mary Magdalene came to the tombwhile it was still dark.  I want to use that phrase as a metaphor, a metaphor in regard to our present circumstances, and as something that passes with the coming of the light.

  

1.  While it was still dark, we have struggled to understand.

     

Hindsight, it is often said, is 20/20.  Already, in just a short span of weeks, we can look back and see much more clearly what should have been done four, five, or six weeks ago.

     

Also because of hindsight, looking back across the span of church history, we know the outcome of the Easter story.  We know that Good Friday can be called Good because we know the resurrection took place.  The disciples, however, only hours away from the first Easter, did not have the benefit of such hindsight.  They would eventually understand, as Luke tells us in 24:45 – then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  Even though Jesus had told his disciples he would be resurrected, they could neither understand nor comprehend the idea, at least not at the time. John tells us, Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.”  The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”  But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.  Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken(John 2:19-22).  To grasp what was such an amazing idea could only fully be understood in hindsight, when the resurrection reshaped the thinking of the disciples of Jesus and of the many millions of followers who would come in the two millennia to follow.

     

It is easy to wonder how the disciples could be so slow to understand what is so obvious to us.  The truth is, however, that we have the benefit of two millennia of hindsight.  To be in the midst of a radically shifting paradigm of thinking and understanding, as were the disciples, is to struggle with what Jesus told them.

     

While we look upon the lack of understanding of the disciples, and wonder how this could be so, we confront our own lack of understanding.  How could this be happening to us?  How could our world change so much in such a short period of time?  How did we not see this coming?  What will life be like when this is over?  When will it be over?

     

But one day it will be over.  It will interesting, next year, as we talk about the events of this time.  We will say to one another, remember when we were at home, and wondering when we could go back out without any hesitation?  Remember all those Sundays watching church online?  Remember how we gradually canceled more and more services and activities – worship services, the fellowship meals, the meetings, choir, praise team, Stephen Ministry, and how we wondered how far out we would have to cancel?  How we wondered about VBS, and church camp, and the mission trip?  How we could not visit in hospitals and nursing homes, or our friends, or even, in some cases, our family members?  Remember how it felt to lose so much in our daily lives that we took for granted?  Remember how we promised ourselves we would never again take for granted even the small gifts of life?

2.  While it was still dark, we realized we are vulnerable.

     

It’s hard not to feel frightened in these days, isn’t it?  

     

While it was still dark, John said.  It’s still dark, at least in terms of the situation in which we are living.  And I will admit that I find the darkness to be unsettling.  

     

We assume there are guarantees in life.  We know there is vulnerability to life, but we go on as though we really don’t believe that vulnerability really exists.  We assume we will have a job that will pay our bills, keep us fed, pay for our vehicles, our house, our food, and educate our children.  And then the darkness comes, and jobs disappear, and finances become uncertain, and we realize just how vulnerable we really are.  And it is frightening, and unsettling, and a harsh reminder of our vulnerability.

     

And what is there that can overcome that vulnerability?  Science will eventually find a vaccine for the coronavirus, but not until a tremendous amount of damage and loss has first crashed into so many lives.  The scientific accomplishment of conquering the disease will comfort those of us who make it through relatively unscathed, but not those who have lost so much, and find then that unease has become their companion in life.  Money can provide medical care and help us ride out the economic slump that comes with this crisis, but it cannot save someone whose body cannot overcome the ravages of the virus.  I’m not trying to be discouraging and depressing, certainly not on Easter, but vulnerability is scary to us, and we don’t like to admit to it and talk about it, but it is a reality that lives with us.

     

Sometimes, when I awaken in the night from a disturbing dream, or when I have been awake in the middle of the night with worry, I get up, go to another room in the house, and turn on a light.  The light brings comfort.  It washes away the unsettledness of the darkness.  In the morning, when the sun rises and I walk outside into that beautiful sunshine, I wonder why I was so worried and so afraid in the dark.  The light gives me peace and comfort.  Even when I know the darkness will return, I know the light will return as well, and I take great comfort in that truth.

3.  While it was still dark, we have held to hope that the light is coming.

     

Just as Mary Magdalene and the other followers of Jesus could not understand that he had been resurrected, neither can we understand all that we will eventually learn from our present moment.  We are still, metaphorically speaking, in the dark about what will one day seem obvious to us.  

     

In the final verse of today’s Scripture text, Mary Magdalene tells the disciples I have seen the Lord!  Truth and understanding had come to her, just as it will one day come to us.  It is often said that it is darkest before the dawn.  It is a dark moment in which we now live, but our hope is that the dawn is just around the corner.  But it’s not just a hope, it is a promise; the promise that Easter brings to us. 

     

I do not profess to know the timeline of the first Easter morning.  We know that Mary arrived at the tomb while it was still dark, but I like to think that when Jesus sent Mary to the disciples, when she turned to go, that the sunrise was shining upon her.  I like to think of it that way because it fits so well with the light of the resurrection.

     

What can overcome the darkness? In John 8:12 Jesus said, I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  

     

This is one of the central truths of Easter – the light dispels the darkness.  Yes, there are many realities in our world – harsh realities – that prey upon us but they cannot ultimately bring defeat – not even in death.  Our lives are disrupted now, but we will overcome. And even if we fall to the ravages of this disease, the light of resurrection still has the final word, because it always does.  Always.

     

Somewhere down the road, hopefully in the very near future, we will look back, as the disciples looked back, and see and understand more clearly about what has taken place during this time.  For all the questions we have asked, we will also remember the answers when they came – remember how God did see us through?  Remember how the darkness passed away and the light came? Remember how we stepped out of our isolation and into fellowship?  Remember when we turned off our computers and walked into the church that first Sunday? Remember what a joy and what a gift that was?  Remember the sense of resurrection we felt?

     

We are ready for the light. We are more than ready for the light. The light has come.  There just happens to be some momentary darkness that has crept back into life, but the light of the risen Jesus will soon dispel that darkness.

     

While it was still dark, the light was being prepared.

     

While it was still dark, resurrection was stirring.

     

Then Easter came, and the light overcame the darkness!

     

Happy Easter!  The light has come!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!