May 13, 2012 - Welcome to the Real World

Genesis 29:14b-19; 21a; 22-23a; 25-28; 30b

Does anyone remember the TV show An American Family?  Premiering on May 30, 1971 on PBS, there were twelve episodes featuring Bill and Pat Loud and their children.  It was the first reality television show, and was quite controversial at the time.  It took a “typical” American family, placed them in front of the lens of a TV camera, and then broadcast their lives to the world.  In the process the family unraveled, and millions of people were riveted to their TV screens to watch.  Before that show, most families were seen on TV as a Leave It To Beaver family, with the appearance that everything is fine in most homes.  An American Family lifted the lid off of the American home and presented the real world of family life.

As I’ve said before, the Bible presents the lives of its characters in all their dysfunction, struggles, ups and downs – it shows us the real world of human life.  There are no illusions or false pretenses given in Scripture.  What churches have tended to do, unfortunately, is to polish up the lives of the Biblical characters, put halos on them, and thus removed them from the reality of every day life.

We can do the same thing with Mother’s Day.  It’s a great holiday but it can also mask a lot of pain that people face – the pain of wayward children, the pain of struggling relationships, the pain of missing spouses, the pain of a missing mother, and the pain of those who were unable to have children.

Our Scripture reading for this morning presents some interesting characters to us, and it gives us a glimpse into the very real world of their relationships and struggles.  This is a small part of the longer story of the life of Jacob, and as we examine what happens between Jacob, his father-in-law/uncle Laban, and his wives Leah and Rachel, we find their real world was one of struggle, pain, conflict, deception, and heartbreak.  I would encourage you to find time and read the entire story of Jacob as found in Genesis chapters 27 – 37 and 49 – 50.  It will make you feel better about your life and family.

Today’s part of the story begins with Jacob living with and working for his uncle, Laban.  After a month Laban comes to Jacob and tells him he would like to pay him for his labors.  Laban had two daughters – Leah and Rachel, and he was certainly aware that Jacob was in love with Rachel.  The Bible describes Rachel as lovely in form, and beautiful.  She was hot.  Leah is described as having weak eyes (17).  Poor Leah!  The good news is she is immortalized in Scripture, but the bad news is that it’s with the description of having weak eyes.  It was a nice way of saying she was not very attractive.  It's the Biblical way of saying she has a nice personality.

Jacob is so head-over-heels in love with Rachel he is easy picking for Laban.  Love is a wonderful thing, but it can sometimes cloud our thinking.  When I first met Tanya I started showing up early in the morning at the library because I knew that’s where she would be.  My roommate had to tell me where I could find the library.  I started going to Shakespeare plays with her, and at that point in my life I had absolutely no interest in Shakespeare.

Jacob has it bad.  So bad, he tells Laban he will work for him for seven years if he can marry Rachel.  Laban, I imagine, was quite shocked.  And Genesis says that Jacob served seven years...but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her (20).  Now there’s a Mother’s Day story.  You know kids, your father loved me so much he worked seven years for my father before we were married.  I’ll leave out the part about your grandfather cheating him and all the other things that happened, but isn’t that a nice story?

The seven years are finally complete and Laban gives a feast but there is no happily ever after.  Jacob wakes up in the morning and finds he is married not to Rachel, but to her sister Leah.  Jacob reaps what he has sown.  Jacob, the deceiver, has been deceived.  Entering his father’s tent, Jacob deceived him in order to steal away his older brother’s blessing.  Now he entered into another tent only to find he has been deceived by his father-in-law.

We could ask how many people find out the person they married is not really the person they thought they knew?  What happened to that kind, funny person I was dating?  There is never any harm in taking plenty of time to get to know the person you are going to marry.  There is never a need to be in a hurry.

Jacob is incensed by the deception and confronts Laban.  Laban, who plotted to do this from the beginning.  Laban calmly tells Jacob it is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.  At that point Jacob is probably ready to say you could have mentioned that seven years ago!  Laban tells Jacob he can marry Rachel, if he agrees to work for another seven years.  Jacob agrees, and a week later he and Rachel marry, and Jacob goes to work for his father-in-law for another seven years.

Verse 30 gives us this interesting piece of information – and he loved Rachel more than Leah.  Now there’s a reality show for you.  And also a source of clients for a counseling service.  Your father-in-law deceives you, you end up married to two women who are sisters, you love one of them more than the other – what a mess!

But isn’t that where we often live our lives?  How often do we look at our lives, throw up our hands, and say what a mess!  I can’t even trust my own family, my marriage isn’t what I wish, and let’s not even talk about my job!  I’m working in the family business and my father-in-law is my boss and he hired me through a deceitful arrangement!

Is your life looking any better to you?

So here we have a polygamous marriage, a deceptive father-in-law, a deceived son-in-law, and no mention of God anywhere in this part of Jacob’s story.  So what do we make out of this story?

This is who we are – a collection of people who believe we must do what it takes to survive, and doing what it takes to survive can lead us down the road to some very bad decisions and very bad situations.  But these are the people God used, and used in such dramatic ways!

Churches too often communicate that you must get your life cleaned up, shined up, and halo worthy before God is going to be interested in you or willing to use you.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  These are the people God used – Jacob, a deceiver who lived his life by treachery and built his fortune through deceit.  Rachel, the loved wife, but also the insecure wife, who was so jealous for her husband that she later made some very tragic decisions.  And poor Leah, the unloved wife, who had to live with the knowledge her husband’s heart was with another woman.  And the struggle doesn’t end with this generation of the family.  Remember the story of Joseph and his brothers?  Guess who was Joseph’s mother – Rachel.  Do you know who was the mother of the other brothers – Leah.  That explains some of the animosity of the brothers toward Joseph.

God uses people who live in the real world of struggles, and problems, and failures.

When I was a junior in high school we had a very interesting event take place in worship one Sunday morning.  When it came time for the sermon, one of our elders stood up from the choir where he was seated and made his way to the pulpit.  He began to criticize our minister over something he had said in his sermon the previous Sunday.  I remember what he said – if you can’t say something nice about someone you should keep your big, fat mouth shut.  As I remember it most of us laughed and agreed when he said those words.  I imagine this particular elder had it in for our minister, and this was his excuse to get rid of him.  After complaining about the minister using such language from the pulpit, he said I believe we should fire him immediately.  Chaos broke out as people were trying to speak at once.  In the middle of the chaos a young lady who was my age stood up.  She was seated on the other side of the sanctuary from me.  I knew who she was, but I didn’t really know her as a friend.  Everyone in town, in fact, knew who she was.  They knew who she was because she had been the subject of a great deal of whispering and gossip around town, because she was pregnant.  When this seventeen-year-old pregnant girl began showing up in church there were a lot of people unhappy.  But she stood up in the middle of the chaos that day and spoke out.  She said our minister had reached out to her and to her family and so she started coming to church.  Unfortunately, she was met with a lot of stares and whispers, but she kept coming back.  Up until that moment, I didn’t know why she had started coming to our church.  I admired her courage, because it was obvious she had not received much of a welcome.  But I learned something incredibly important that day.  I learned that you do not have to have your life perfectly put together before you come to God, or have it perfectly put together before he will love you, or have it perfectly put together before he will use you.  God used that young lady to teach our church a lesson that day, a lesson we had been to blind to see.

We live in the real world, and that is where God meets us.  You don’t have to have a halo or a perfect life before God will love you or work in and through your life.  God wants you just as you are. 

May we pray.

May 6, 2012 Ancient Stories and Timeless Truths: Rebuilding Life

May 6, 2012

Nehemiah 5:1-12

It’s an interesting perspective from where I stand on Sunday morning.  Choir, don’t you think this is an interesting perspective?  One reason it is so interesting is that when I look out at you I see what could be called the “ducks floating on the water” view.  You know the old saying about a duck casually floating on a pond?  On the surface they seem calm and serene but below the surface they are paddling like crazy. 

When I look out on the congregation I see a group of people who look calm (perhaps some of you are too calm, as your eyes are closed) but I know the reality is very different.  You may appear very calm on the outside, but inside you may be a wreck, and perhaps your life is a wreck.  In a group of people this size it will always be true that some will be going through times of great difficulty.

Today’s message is Rebuilding Life, which is from the book of Nehemiah.  You’ll remember that Nehemiah’s book tells the story of the Hebrew people finally being permitted to return home after years of captivity in Babylon.  When they returned to Jerusalem they found a city in ruins and they began the difficult process of rebuilding the walls of the city.  The people faced immense challenges as they sought to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and their lives.  As Nehemiah writes of the rebuilding of the city walls he is writing about far more than just rebuilding walls of stone and mortar; he is writing the story of rebuilding life.

There is no way I can do justice this morning to all the material we find in the book of Nehemiah, so I will just be skimming the surface.  I hope you will take some time in the coming days and read through the entire book.

Over the years I have repeated a phrase countless times to Tanya.  I will say wouldn’t it be nice to lead a normal life?  But what is a normal life?  If you think everyone but you is living a normal life, think again.  And if you get tired of juggling any number of responsibilities, we’re not the first people in history to have to do so.  As the people rebuilt the wall, there was so much opposition they had to work with one hand while carrying a weapon in the other in order to defend themselves.

Some people may have a vested interest in seeing that we do not change.  Perhaps our decision to change will confront others with the reality that they too need to change and to rebuild their lives.  Some people may simply be skeptical of our commitment to change.  Do not let the doubters stop you from rebuilding your life; do not let the doubters determine how successful you will be in your efforts; do not let the doubters tell you that you cannot change.

But what they also do is affirm that God is the foundation of their lives, and they affirm the ability to change through the power of God.  There is a spiritual component to life, and it is the foundation of life.

 

A very important principle comes from the life of Nehemiah himself.  Nehemiah was a very strong and effective leader.  We certainly need great leaders, but what we must remember is that everyone must lead their own life.  Leadership is not only a commodity in short supply in our nation and even our churches; leadership is also in short supply in the lives of individuals.  Nehemiah was someone who took responsibility for his life and did what he was called to do.  Take a hard look at your life – are you a leader for your own life?  Are you doing what you have been called to do, what you need to do?

In chapter five we find another principle.  In verse ten we find the people complaining about the financial difficulties they were being forced to bear.  After suffering for over seventy years in exile, they were now being taken advantage of by their own countrymen.  They were facing bullies among their own people.

There are bullies in this world who seek to take advantage of others.  We must speak up against the bullies we face.  This is not easy for many, but there are times when we must stand up and confront the situations that are unhealthy for us.  When someone is treating us in a manner that is hurtful to us, we must speak up and confront the situation. As difficult as it can be to confront a situation or a person, there are times when such action is both necessary and justified. 

And we must speak up on behalf of others. As you can see, I’m not a big guy, and I wasn’t a big kid, and I had to face bullies. I remember very vividly when a friend of mine stood up for me when others were trying to bully me.  This is what the people were asking for in the passage we read this morning – they were asking for someone to stand up and speak on their behalf.

There are religious bullies that must be faced as well. In another church where I served, on my first day in the office, I had a visitor who announced to me that their goal was to make my life and ministry as difficult as possible.  The person was a bully who sought to get their way on every matter and had bullied the church for years. A few weeks ago, North Carolina pastor Sean Harris, in a sermon, advocated violence by parents against children who give any indication they may be gay.  I serve on the board of a foster care agency, and what we see happening to children is both heartbreaking and heart wrenching.  When someone such as Pastor Harris gives a religious sanctioning to using physical violence against children, we must speak out and say that it is wrong, as is anyone who advocates violence in the name of Christ.

It is necessary that we ask ourselves the question am I doing anything that is harming someone else or making it difficult to rebuild their life?  If you read in chapter five we find the situation of people returning from exile and then being placed in slavery by the abuse of their own people.  Upon return, many people were in financial difficulties and they were taken advantage of to the point they had to sell members of their own family into slavery.  When they complained to Nehemiah, he called the people together and denounced the practice and it stopped.  Things don’t always work out this way, unfortunately, as people who are doing something to complicate or hurt the life of another don’t recognize – or they refuse to recognize – how their actions are hurting someone else.

When I was attending seminary I had a job working in the Butchertown section of Louisville.  The couple that owned the business bought an adjoining property with an old house they decided to refurbish.  I spent most of a summer stripping layers and layers of old paint of the doors of that house.  It was monotonous work and I was tired of it after several weeks and I was gripping about it one day to Scott, who owned the business.  My opinion was to just add some more paint, but he told me sometimes you have to remove the accumulation of years to make it new again.  And he was correct.  After scraping off that paint I discovered beautiful wood, and they were once again like new.

The years of life add a lot of accumulation to us.  We experience difficulties and get a few scars.  We have some trials and tribulations and we get some calluses.  We receive hurts and disappointments and we put a protective layer around our hearts.  We make a few mistakes and we begin packing around a load of guilt and regret.  But the grace of God removes the accumulation of the years, and the Spirit begins to reshape and rebuild life. 

Perhaps your life needs rebuilding.  What is keeping you from doing what you need to do to rebuild your life?  Have you spent time in prayer, asking God to give you direction and strength about what you need to do to rebuild your life?  Perhaps you believe it is too late or too difficult to start over and rebuild life.  It is never too late.  It may be difficult, but it is not too late.  What will you do to change your life?  What will it take to allow God to enter into your life in a powerful way and change your life?

Do you need to rebuild your life?  If so, will you begin to do so today?

April 22, 2012 - Ancient Stories and Timeless Truths - A Church Without Walls

When I was in college I was hoping to secure a double major in religion and psychology.  I decided not to take the final two classes I needed to gain the psychology major, as I had diagnosed myself with all the phobias we were studying. 

But the psychology classes did start a long fascination in me about how we perceive the nature of reality.  We all have filters on our eyes and ears that affect how we perceive the world, other people, and even ourselves. 

As an illustration, look at the following picture.

What do you see in this picture?  How many of you see two faces opposite of each other?  How many of you see a chalice, or cup?  How many of you see a deer running across a meadow with a mountain peak in the background (if that’s what you see I have someone I need to refer you to). How many of you can’t see either?

Why do we see what we see?  This is one of the great questions of life, I believe, and it’s a question that we rarely, if ever, stop to ponder.  Vision – how we see others and how we see the world around us – is so incredibly important to understand. 

When we come to understand something we almost never say now I understand.  What do we say?  Now I see.

Here is an important truth to understand (or maybe more appropriately – to see) – it is our vision that often keeps us from being able to see.  That sounds like a contradictory statement, but how we see the world and how we understand the world can actually keep us from grasping very important truths and realities.

Here is one of the most important aspects of faith – faith helps open our eyes to truth and reality; faith helps us to see what is actually happening in our world, it helps us to really see ourselves, and it helps us to really see others.

This morning we continue our series Ancient Stories and Timeless Truths as we come to the message A Church Without Walls.  In recent weeks, as we have been going through the Old Testament we’ve been studying stories, but today we come to a passage that’s not a story, but a prophecy. It comes from Isaiah, 2:1-5, and is one of his most well known prophecies. 

Let’s read that passage now. 

This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; 
it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. 
He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” 
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 


He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. 
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. 
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

That is a statement of hope, not a statement of reality.  People were not saying let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and nations were not beating their swords into plowshares or their spears into pruning hooks.

What Isaiah is envisioning is the removing of the walls that separate humanity.  It is, really, a prophetic challenge to the church, as the church is called to be a gathering that removes the walls that separate people, but is sometimes a gathering that builds walls without even realizing they are doing so.  It is a prophetic call to see the world and people through the eyes of God.  Isaiah spoke words with the aim of opening our eyes; opening our eyes to see the world and others with a God-shaped vision.  Our vision is going to be shaped by something – just as the opening picture demonstrates, but Isaiah is calling us to have a vision that is shaped by God.

It is a vision that seeks to tear down the wall between worship and the world.

I have to admit that I often feel a bit uncomfortable playing an electric guitar in worship, and I know exactly why – because it’s hard to overcome what you were told years ago.

When I was in, probably the 9^th grade, my home church hosted a singing group one Sunday morning.  They were from Milligan College, where I went to school, and along with the group of six or seven singers they had a couple of instruments with them – an acoustic guitar and a snare drum.  It was just a bit less than the amount of equipment we have up here this morning.  I was looking forward to hearing this group, and the fact that someone was going to play a guitar and a drum at church was amazing.  And then people started to come into the sanctuary.  As people came into the sanctuary and saw that guitar and drum on the platform, many turned around and walked out in anger.  About half of the congregation walked out that morning because those were not instruments to be used in worship.  A wall went up that morning – a wall that said what happens in here – in worship – is different from what takes place out there – in the world, and it created a disconnect between worship and the world.  It created a wall that divided my life into two different parts – my life in worship and my life outside of worship.

When you disconnect worship from life, bad things can happen.

That’s one of the realities Isaiah spoke against.  In his day, Elijah saw the disconnect between what took place in worship and what took place in daily life. In Isaiah’s day there was a great deal of activity at the Temple.  Plenty of people were coming to worship, but they would leave worship and fail to connect that worship with how they lived their lives.  By doing so, they failed to see how some of them were damaging the lives of others.  They failed to see, for instance, how they were making the lives of the poor more difficult.  They failed to see how they were constructing society to favor some people while oppressing other people.  They failed to see the great injustices and inequities of society that made the lives of many so very difficult.

Worship should be a time that opens our eyes, and a time that brings us to an understanding of the kind of world God desires.  If what we do here has no connection to how we live out there, we have constructed a wall that is very difficult to overcome.

It is a vision that seeks to tear down the walls between people.

When I show a picture such as the one on the screen at the beginning of my message it’s a relatively harmless exercise in perception.  It doesn’t really matter if you see a chalice or two faces in that picture.  But it does matter how we see other people, and we see people in very different ways.  Our experiences and our background will mold how we see other people, and sometimes those things cause us to look upon people in negative ways.

I only have to mention two names this morning to demonstrate how people can see others very differently – George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.  As soon as we hear those two names all the things that influence how we see the world and how we see others start to work.

The sad truth of church history is that, instead of tearing down the walls between people, the church has sometimes built and enforced the walls of separation between people. 

Isaiah spoke of the day when many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God” (verse 2).  It was not a house that welcomed many nations during Isaiah’s day.  In fact, the Temple became an example of the walls between people – literal walls.  There were divisions between the various parts of the Temple, and each wall further divided who was allowed to enter.  Gentile people could enter only the outermost part, women could only enter to a certain point, priests could only enter to a certain point, and only the high priest to the innermost portion of the Temple.  Isaiah’s vision is one when all people are welcomed into worship.

Churches, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly, put up walls about who is welcome.  There are walls of race, of class, of economics, of point of view, and on and on we could go.  Is it any wonder that so many people have no problems with Jesus but have great problems with the church?

It is a vision that seeks to tear down the walls created by conflict.

Across the street from the United Nations building in New York, in Ralph Bunche Park, is the Isaiah Wall, which contains part of our Scripture reading for this morning.  I wonder sometimes if anyone in the UN pays attention to that wall.

Isaiah spoke those great words – they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more. 

The interesting word in that passage is learn – neither shall they learn war any more.  War is not a natural state – it is a learned state.  Conflict is natural, but war is not.

It is so difficult to learn to deal with our differences.  Even in our own religious heritage, as Disciples of Christ – a movement that began with the idea of bringing unity – we find that movement splintered into three separate movements.

Our conflicts consume so many of our resources.  Think of where we might be in human history had not so many resources been diverted into war.  Think of the amount of brainpower and finances that could have been used to further medicine or other important pursuits.  But our conflicts, far too often, result in division and violence.

Isaiah spoke these beautiful words, these hopeful words, of what might be.  He spoke these words many centuries ago, but they remain words that tug at the human heart because of the hope they express.

A church without walls becomes a world without walls.

April 15, 2012 - Ancient Stories and Timeless Truths: You Are Never Alone

I Kings 19:9-13

Of all the memories we have, some of the most powerful ones are the times when we have found encouragement that demonstrate we are not alone in this life.  In August of 1981 I moved to Louisville to attend seminary, and prior to my moving to Louisville I had been to Kentucky once.  I had never been to the seminary, didn’t know where the campus was located, and set off on my journey without any directions.

But worse than not knowing how to find the campus, I had no place to live.  Two weeks before I moved I received a letter saying I was bumped from campus housing because they were overbooked.  I thought I would just show up and hope for the best. At 24 years old it seemed like an adventure to me so I decided I would get in my car and head to Louisville.  The problem was, the closer I got to Louisville, the worse that decision began to look.  It began to look less like an adventure and more like a foolish decision. 

I arrived in Louisville in the middle of the evening, thinking there would be a big sign somewhere that said seminary, this way. I pulled off the interstate somewhere downtown – this was way before Mapquest and GPS systems – and was lost pretty quickly.  After a number of wrong turns and stopping to ask for directions several times I managed to find Lexington Road and the campus.  I will never forget stepping out of my car, looking around at totally strange surroundings, with all my belongings in my car (and not taking up much room in my car), and wondering what in the world had possessed me to arrive with no idea of where I was going to spend that first night.

I wandered around until I found the housing office and walked in with the hope that by some miracle there would be a place for me.  There was, unfortunately no place for me in the dorm or in any of the other seminary housing.

That was a very discouraging moment, and I started reconsidering the wisdom of coming to seminary under such circumstances.

This morning, continuing with our series Ancient Stories and Timeless Truths, we will study an event from the life of Elijah.  This is an event that takes place shortly after Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  What’s fascinating about today’s story is that Elijah – who seemed so strong and confident on Mount Carmel – is now very discouraged and feeling as though he is totally alone.

This is the same Elijah who called out King Ahab and challenged the king and the nation of Israel to forsake the false gods and to return to the worship of the true God.  But when Ahab’s wife – the notorious Jezebel – heard of what Elijah had done she sent this word to him – by this time tomorrow you will be a dead man (19:2).  Evidently Ahab and hundreds of priests of Baal and the nation of Israel did not strike fear into Elijah – but Jezebel did.  Elijah was very afraid and ran for his life (19:3).  He flees to the wilderness, sits down under a tree, and in an absolute pit of despair tells God O Lord take my life (19:4).

Those are the words of a man who believes he is alone in the world.  He tells God I alone am left (19:10).  Elijah goes to sleep in that place and is awakened by an angel who provides him with food and water.

Elijah then goes into the wilderness, to Mount Horeb, for forty days and forty nights (19:8).  Elijah is able to travel into the wilderness and on to Mount Horeb, staying in a cave, not simply because he has been given something to eat and drink, but because of the knowledge that he is not alone.

This is the confirmation that everyone needs in life – you are not alone.  You are never alone.  As much as we need physical sustenance for our survival, we really need the spiritual encouragement of knowing we are not alone.

How often have you felt alone?  I’m not going to ask if you have felt alone, because I assume everyone knows that feeling – how often have you felt alone?  It’s a difficult time, isn’t it?  Perhaps you have moved to a new home and town and you remember the feeling of knowing no one.  Perhaps you moved to a new school and you remember walking in that first day when you didn’t know anyone. 

Elijah continues on his journey and arrives at Mount Horeb, and is in a cave, and we are told that the Lord was passing by! (19:11 – note the exclamation point).  The idea of God passing by is a way of signifying something very important was about to take place and that Elijah would be in the very presence of God.  Then a wind that was so strong that the rocks were being broken blows through, but God was not in the powerful wind.  After the wind comes an earthquake that shakes the mountain, but God is not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake comes a fire, but God was not in the fire.  After the fire comes a sound like a gentle blowing, and in that blowing was the still, small voice of God.

Elijah walks out of the cave where he was hiding and God says What are you doing here, Elijah? (19:14).  Elijah proceeds to tell God about how he had been very zealous for him, how God’s people had forsaken worship and gone after false gods, and how the prophets had been killed, that he alone was left, and his life was in danger (19:14).  I’m not sure why Elijah told God all of this; it’s not like God didn’t already know.  Elijah is venting to God, and God gives him a task and sends him on his way, but not before correcting Elijah about an important point – that is, he is not alone.  God tells Elijah there are 7,000 people in Israel that have not gone after false gods (19:18).  I don’t know how many people had gone after the false gods, but 7,000 people is no small number.  Elijah, God was saying, you are not alone.

Remember this –

1.  You are not alone, because God has brought people into your life to love you.  My life has been so blessed by a multitude of friends.  God has brought into my life so many people who are so important to me, and when I feel alone one of the first things I do is remember that I am never alone.  God has placed people in your life to minister to you and to love you.  You are not alone.

2.  You are not alone because God never leaves you.  I don’t think a week ever passes that I don’t hear someone express their gratitude for the knowledge that God is always with them.  This is a truth that people express in hospital rooms and funeral homes and in counseling sessions and in countless other difficult situations.  And it is absolutely true.  God is always with you, and this is one of the great truths of Scripture.

3.  God wants to encourage you, but he also wants you to avoid being trapped in the discouragement of feeling alone.  Notice that God made sure Elijah had a task and that he encouraged Elijah to fulfill that task.  One of the greatest threats of loneliness and discouragement is the danger of withdrawing into our own lives and that withdrawal leads only to further isolation and more loneliness.  When you feel alone, step into the life of someone else.

4.  Others know what you are experiencing.  One of the great advantages of being involved with other people is the knowledge they have traveled the same roads we travel in life.  Many times I have sat with someone who could encourage me because they have experienced what I may be experiencing, and their understanding and what they have learned is so incredibly helpful.

After sitting for a while in the housing office at seminary wondering what to do, I got up and started to leave.  As I was walking out of the office one of the staff members said Wait a minute, there’s a note here for you.  They handed me a handwritten note and I had no idea who would have left a note for me; to my knowledge I didn’t know anybody on campus, but it turned out that a friend of mine and his wife were there on campus.  He was also a new student and they had arrived earlier in the summer as she had a job in one of the offices on campus, had seen my name on the list of those who had lost their housing, and had left a note telling me they were going to give me a place to stay until I could get settled. 

I can’t tell you what a huge relief that was.  Going from feeling very alone to great relief was a wonderful moment, and it was a powerful confirmation to me of God’s provision.

God doesn’t generally come in very dramatic ways, but he does come to us.  It may not be in a way as dramatic as a strong wind, or an earthquake, or a fire, but he does come to us.  It is often with the "still, small voice" that he comes to us, or perhaps in the form of a friend or loved one, who offers love and encouragement to us.  But he always comes to us, and we are never alone.  May we pray.

April 8, 2012 - Easter Sunday - A Resurrected Life

Luke 24:1-12

A young minister was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a man, with no family or friends, who had died while traveling through the area. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way out in the country, and this man would be the first person laid to rest there.

The minister was not familiar with the area and became lost.  Arriving an hour late he saw the backhoe and the crew, eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight.  He apologized to the workers for his tardiness, stepped to the side of the open grave, where he saw a vault lid already in place.

He assured the workers he would not hold them long, but it was proper to say some words.  The workers gathered around and the minister poured out his heart and soul.  As he preached the workers began to say amen, praise the Lord, and glory.  He preached and preached, all the way from Genesis to Revelation.

He finally closed with a prayer and walked back to his car, believing he had done his duty and knowing he left the crew with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication.

As he opened the door of his car he overheard one of the workers say, I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for over twenty years.

Cemeteries don’t generally inspire humor, but I think we can say that Easter is a guarantee that death no longer has the last laugh.

There was no humor or joy among those who went to the tomb on the first Easter morning.  Luke tells us of the women, still overcome with grief, who walked to the cemetery early in the morning to finish the task they had begun on Friday, after the crucifixion.  The task was completing the preparation of the body of Jesus.  Their task would not be a pleasant one.  They were two days from the crucifixion and they were going to an unpleasant place.  I cannot imagine the idea of entering a tomb with the thought of fulfilling such a task.

There was no expectation of finding life.  You do not go to a cemetery expecting to find life, but in a place that was about death, a transformation had taken place – life had come!  No longer seen as an end, death was transformed from an end to a beginning.

Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, but it is also a day that reminds us that we are able to live A Resurrected Life.

Easter, and its resurrected life, gives us a totally new way of looking at life.  Easter allows us to look into the eye of struggle and difficulty and see that something good can come from that struggle.  The Got Milk? campaign has spawned a lot of imitators.  I think someone should make a bumper sticker that says Got Struggles?  It’s okay!  Easter proves that even in our struggles we find something good. The great transformation of Easter is that even death itself becomes something new.

Easter, and its resurrected life, is also what provides the vision to see people in a new way.  Where others saw a thief and a cheat in Zaccheus, Jesus saw something else.  Where others saw a woman to put to death and stood ready, rocks in hand, Jesus saw one who was no different than anyone else – one to be given grace and a new chance at life.  Where Peter saw his terrible failure of denying Jesus, Jesus still saw Peter as a leader and charged him with caring for his people.  While others saw a man living among the tombs as a hopeless case, Jesus saw one in need of compassion and healing.  While others saw a thief to be crucified, Jesus looked at the one hanging on the cross next to his and gave grace to enter his kingdom.  And while others looked at those Roman soldiers in anger and contempt, Jesus said not only to go a second mile when forced to go one mile, but also offered his forgiveness to the ones who nailed him to the cross and to those who trumped up the charges that put him on the cross.

Easter also gives us a new vision for our world.  We all want to complain about the state of the world today, and there is no shortage of things of which we can complain.  I read the other day about possible world events that could drive the price of gas to $8 a gallon.  But I also watched a report a few days ago about reconciliation efforts taking place in Somalia, seeking to bring healing after the terrible violence between Tutsi and Hutu tribes that left hundreds of thousands dead.  In the space of ten days during 1994 over 800,000 people were killed in horrible violence.  Those who committed the killings are coming together to seek reconciliation with the family members of the victims.  I cannot imagine the difficulty of facing the people who caused so much pain and heartache.  But there was a common theme among the victims – God teaches us to forgive others as he has forgiven us.  Isn’t that amazingly powerful?  When there are people willing to forgive such atrocities, there is hope for our world. 

Jesus did not sit with the local group in the market, drinking a cup of coffee and having a gripe session – he did something.  His vision was for a better world, a resurrected world.  He laid his hands on the sick to heal them, he fed the hungry, he embraced the outcast, and he challenged the powers of the world when they sought to oppress and to use and abuse people.

And I would say that faith itself needs a resurrection. 

Andrew Sullivan has an article in the current edition of Newsweek magazine titled Christianity in Crisis.  The cover of Newsweek shouts the blurb Forget the Church, Follow Jesus.  He makes the legitimate point that some people within the church have so damaged faith that it is worth considering forgetting the church and just following Jesus.  I’m not ready to cede that point, but he has a point.  In resurrecting faith it is time to push back against the hucksters, the abusers, the thieves, the hustlers, the finger-pointers, the hypocrites and others who have so damaged the church and faith itself.  There is far too much that we see done in the name of the church that does not reflect Jesus, and if we want the church to remain relevant to our world we simply must say that is not the spirit of Jesus.

There are many churches that need a resurrected view of life.  There are churches falling into decline and struggling to maintain a sense of life and they need to know there is hope and new life for them.  I believe that the crisis facing churches and faith in this day and age may be one of the best things that could happen to church and to faith itself.  I believe it is one of the best things to happen because it will bring about a sense of questioning and introspection that will lead to the renewal that is so needed. 

In Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson tells the story of Parisian obstetrician Stéphane Tarnier, who in the 1870s witnessed the death of almost two-thirds of babies born with low birth weight. Exhausted from living with so many losses, Tarnier took a day and visited the zoo. He wandered into an exhibit of baby chickens and saw an incubator in use. Soon he had a similar machine built for human babies, and the mortality rate was halved.

(http://www.faithandleadership.com/content/cultivating-easter-vision)

In that case, death led to life.  Easter reminds us that death leads to life.  Receive that life today.