There is a way for us to settle conflicts without bloodshed. I have recently felt it imperative that I affirm this truth in your hearing.
Perhaps it is the approaching anniversary of September 11th, which frankly awakens more emotions of sadness, anger and fear inside each of us than most of us desire to deal with, and even fewer of us are capable of dealing with.
Among the emotions, which September 11th has stirred up, is the recognition that in the religions of the world there is this dark side, which divides people between them and us and can lead to the depersonalization of another human being whom God has created. And although we occasionally see this dark side in the Old Testament, the New Testament speaks of a more excellent way.
Perhaps I am led to affirm that there is a way for us to settle conflicts without bloodshed because of the visible court case of these two King boys who killed their father, which pushes most of us right over the edge of the worst that we can imagine. Frankly, the step from violent video games to an actual gun or baseball bat is no longer a giant step in the eyes of a child.
Perhaps it is because our President and few others in the world are saber-rattling and sounding the trump of war and it greatly troubles me. Knowing that he and his advisors know far more than we do, I submit to his authority, yet I am troubled. I believe that there is such a thing as a "just war," but we must exhaust all forms of reconciliation before innocent blood is spilled on the sands of time.
In the days of the cold war, when many were building fall out shelters, someone said: "our survival is more important than the Sermon on the Mount." I don't think most of us believe that.
Perhaps it is just that the sounds of an approaching war that greatly troubles me, and pushes me to affirm for us that there is a way for us to settle conflicts without bloodshed.
Perhaps it is because the Holy Land conflict of land ownership has now burst into the flames of open warfare again, which breaks my heart for the children who are the victims of the idiocy of their parents. I keep hearing the cry of a child living today in a Bedouin tent in Judea with no understanding of why the adults are killing each other.
Perhaps I am led to affirm this truth that there is a way for us to settle conflicts without bloodshed, because of the awareness that the marriage relationship is in trouble today here in America, and I see to many people fighting each other in unfair ways. In marriage you don't fight to win. If you fight to win the fight, you lose the marriage. You want to fight to clear the air, to gain understanding, to solidify the partnership and to increase communication. Not to get the upper hand, not to make yourself feel good and the other person to feel bad, not to hurt, but to help. Perhaps it is just because I see too many people handling conflict in the home in poor ways and families and relationships are breaking down. And sometimes I just want to scream, stop, sit down, go to your corners and rest a bit and then come back into the ring.
Perhaps it is the awareness that every week in this community someone explodes and either beats up someone, or horror of all horrors, kills someone, which is but one more senseless way of not choosing a better way of settling conflicts, and it leads to nothing but sadness.
For the sake of the future of society, and maybe for your own personal future, listen up.
As Paul said in I
Cor. "Let me show you a more excellent way."
As the Prophet Isaiah said: "Come, let us reason together.
Let me show you a more excellent way. Come let us reason together:
Jesus said to his followers recorded in Matthew 18:15-22
Here is how you are
to settle disputes:
1. go to the individual one on one, just between you and that person
2. if he doesn't listen to you, carry someone with you.
3. if that doesn't work, bring it before the church. And you remember that
whatever you ask of God in prayer you believe that you will receive it and it
will be yours.
So simple, yet it is a different way than the world in which we currently live chooses to settle disputes. You don't hit back. Fighting back and retaliation is not the way to find resolution. It never ends. Ask the Irish. Ask the Tutsi or Hutu tribes. Ask the Jews. Ask the Hatfield's and the McCoy's.
Jesus was clear about this. Matthew 5:38 "You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
And Jesus said: "You have heard it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven."
Years ago in the Crimean War, soldiers would line up shoulder to shoulder and march into a line of firing muskets, and one by one of these soldiers would fall to the ground mortally wounded. The same style of foolish war fair occurred in the “War Between the States” here on our native land. To visit Gettysburg, and to stand on the field of battle and feel the breeze washing, pushing over the land and old pine ramparts, is to hear the cry of the wounded and the rebel cry before marching into a wall of flying metal. And to drink the water in the water fountain beside the battlefield even to this day is to taste impending death. To stand on the hillside of Normandy Beach and to look down on the thousands of grave markers is to recall the foolishness of how we once stormed the shores of the continent of Europe, because we didn't know any better. But today we have the technology of smart bombs, which can seek out the enemy even to destroy soldiers, and buildings, and tanks and planes, even in the darkness. We have smarter ways of settling conflicts, but do we? Have we improved our way of settling conflicts since Cain killed Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve? Have we improved or have the techniques just become more sophisticated?
You may say, well we are more civilized than hitting someone back, because unlike someone who settles disputes by bloodshed, we talk about the problems and the only problem we have is how we talk to everyone else about a problem person. We trash the other person rather than pick up the phone or go visit the other person. You may not like a given person, and may not want to spend your holidays with them, but you don't have the right to talk about them when a direct conversation could solve the problem.
Watch what you say about someone else. An interesting medieval story is about a confession delivered in a small village church outside of Paris. The sinner began: "Father, I have sinned. I have spread a falsehood about someone. I need forgiveness." And the priest responded in the traditional way: "On the basis of Christ's atoning work on your behalf and your repentance of sin, you are forgiven. But, before you go, I require that you take a down pillow as an atoning act of penance, cut it open and walk through the village spreading its feathers everywhere. Then return to me and I will reveal your next penance." The man faithfully followed the priest's instructions. He goes through the village spreading feathers. Finally, he returns asking what he is to do next. Now, says the priest, go and collect every one of those feathers." And the man protests, "But that is impossible!" At which the wise old priest says, "You are so right. You are forgiven, but it is impossible to ever undo all the harm you have done by your gossip. Disaster follows upon disaster when information is not right. Go and do not sin again."
You don't assassinate a person’s character; you don't take a gun, or a baseball bat or an army and beat up on someone else. You don't spread rumor or other negative stuff about another person, just because you are different from them. It doesn't make you look taller if you cut someone else down. There is a better way to settle conflicts than by bloodshed. You don't talk to everybody else except the person with whom you differ about your problem with that person. You don't improve the situation by letting the blood of the other person.
The old way of a shootout at high noon at the O.K. Corral may have been the old Texas cowboy way, but it is not our way, not in this postmodern era. The old way of a duel at dawn may have been the old English way to protect honor, but it is not our way in the 21st Century.
Let me show you a more excellent way:
Probably I need to observe one other thing about conflict and that is that life is not a series of haphazard occurrences, but that in this magnificent universe even conflict and individuals or persons who stir us up or whom we regard as an enemy, can very easily be God's gift which stimulates our growth.
A friend has shared a meaningful book with me whose subtitle is "Spiritual Guidance for Dealing with Difficult People" and the title of the book is, "Thank You For Being Such a Pain"-Isn't that a delightful title? Isn't that a more healthy way to look at those with whom we have conflict?
I am not saying that God is the creator of every ugly person or mean spirited act or every 9-11 event, No, but I am simply saying, don't be so quick to write it off, for we can learn from that which stirs us up when we believe that there is a more excellent way to settle conflicts than by bloodshed.
The story of God's deliverance of the Israelites from slavery and death is the central story of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is a central theme of understanding of what God has done for us through Jesus' life, death and resurrection. He has delivered us from the power of sin and death, through his only son.
The lesson we learn from the history of our people in the Old and the New Testaments is that our God has delivered us!
Some years ago, Will and Ariel Durant wrote a 100 page book entitled "The Lessons of History". It is a profound book that helps us understand history by the century rather than by the event or by the year. The long view of history, the larger perspective. The book begins with an introduction, which is titled: "Hesitations." They write: "It is a precarious enterprise, and only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into 100 pages of hazardous conclusions. Yet we proceed."
The historian
Charles Beard (1874-1948) in the first part of this past century was once asked
if he could summarize the lessons of history. He said that he could do it in
four sentences. And here they are:
1. Whom the gods would destroy, they first made mad with power.
2. The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.
3. The bee fertilizes the flower it robs
4. When it is dark enough, you can see all the stars.
Only a fool would dare to offer a commentary on these four profound statements. Yet, like Will and Ariel Durant, yet I proceed!
1. First of all, we have seen the truth that "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first made mad with power." The scattered remains of the powerful are found throughout human history: The Pharaohs of Egypt and his armies whose story is recorded in our scripture this morning, the Emperors of Rome, the Pilots of Jerusalem, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Black Beard the Pirate. And to a far lesser extent, one is pushed to observe that the failure and the mistakes of our former county commissioners started when they became blind and obsessed with their own assumed power. Yes, the floor of history is strewn with the broken remnants of little tyrants for whom the thirst for power became an obsession.
Shelley wrote
poetically of this phenomena in his poem, “Ozymandias
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the desert…Near them, on the sand,
half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear;
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
This is but a shot of warning across the bow of anyone in their job or in their family who assumes that power gives them the right to do anything and everything they want to do.
All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Alexander the Great was once surprised to find the philosopher, Diogenes, examining a heap of human bones. He asked him what he was looking for, to which, Diogenes replied: "I am searching for the bones of your father, but I cannot distinguish them from those of his slaves." With death, all distinctions fall away.
Ask the powerful of the past, if it is not true that "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first made mad with power." This lesson is but an extension of the first.
2. Secondly, "The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small." Perhaps it would be best to allow the Apostle Paul to offer commentary on the justice of God. Paul writes: "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap". (Gal. 6:7)
The interesting statement by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in 5:38 "Do not resist the Evil One" is Jesus' affirmation that you will not have to resist the evil one, God will handle it. And handle it he will.
As in the crossing of the Reed Sea for the Israelites so long ago, it was God who handled it! In the face of Pharaoh's armies hard on the heel of the fleeting slaves, the water appeared to be a barrier to their freedom. The Israelites had their back up against the wall of the water on one side and the armies of Pharaoh on the other. It was not because of the good works of the Israelites, it was because of the power of God that the waters parted. You don't suppress or abuse or misuse those whom God has created and not expect to be paid back. Let the Osama bin Laden’s of the world, be warned, what goes around comes around. This is a moral universe.
The story of the waters rolling up on each side and providing safe passage to freedom and then the waters rolling back destroying the soldiers of Pharaoh is not a pretty site, but here is not a story designed to illustrate God's tenderness, others will handle that, here is a story that illustrates his power. Here is affirmed for the pharaoh want-a-be’s of today, that "The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small."
Here is a tale of grace, neither of heroically earned freedom nor a powerful people, but of delivered freedom. For a powerless people, God has accomplished a powerful thing.
Later in the story God, through other mighty acts of grace, will feed and water the Israelites in the desert and then give them on Mt. Sinai, the law as a moral compass showing them how God wants them to live. But here in this section of the deliverance narrative, God is powerful, awesome, and he who destroyed the soldiers of the King of Egypt 1300 years ago, will do it again today and tomorrow.
No, God will not be mocked. "The mills of Gods grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small."
3.Thirdly, "The bee fertilizes the flower it robs". There is a mysterious thing that has taken place in America since Sept 11, 2001. Patriotism, citizenship responsibility, a desire to protect others, a desire to express love to those close to us, and other virtuous traits have grown among us. Yes, "The bee fertilizes the flower that it robs." The blood of martyr’s is the strength of future generations. Many of us are more tender and caring since September 13, 2001.
4. Fourthly, "when it is dark enough, you can see all of the stars". Although we dread the sadness and tragedies which comes to us all, most of us have lived long enough and learned to look back on such events from the perspective of time through eyes of gratitude.
Some have even suggested that there are no accidents in life. Everything has its meaning in the larger scheme of things. I hesitate to affirm such a truth because many of you are in the midst of dealing with great tragedy in your life and I honor you in your struggle and would not for a minute consider it trivial. And yet: The apostle Paul writes: "Everything works together for good, for those who love the Lord.
Nine years ago this month, I was hit by a runaway car on scenic highway. For two years there was nothing scenic about the results of such a crazy, senseless accident, and yet from the perspective of time, I recall that until that time of great darkness, I had never seen all the stars. The preciousness of blood family and the power of a church family became clear to me. The strength, which comes from being surrounded by believers and an atmosphere of prayer, I have now experienced first hand.
As one of the Vietnam era prisoners has written, "It was only in the lonely darkness of the prison that I ever realized the preciousness of life."
Sometimes we have to be flat on our back to see the stars above. Sometimes it takes going all the way to the end of our rope to realize that God has hold of the end.
Yes, Sometimes It Takes The Darkness To See All Of The Stars. Know This: God Will Deal With The Evil, Which Stalks The Earth. He Will Part The Waters For His Righteous People To Be Delivered, But He Will Use The Same Waters To Destroy Any And All Who Do Not Honor His Will Nor His Ways.
Here are the lessons of history: Our God delivers the righteous, but destroys the wicked!
Summary: Norman Cousins once wrote: "History is a vast early warning system." Take notice!
In an English Church
in Leicestershire, there is a memorial plaque which reads:
"In the year of 1653, when all things
throughout the nation were either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley,
Baronet, founded this church, whose singular praise it is to have done the best
things in the worst times, and hoped them in the most calamitous times."
A quick glance at English history of that particular era, the mid 17th century, will bear out the turbulent nature of the times. The King, Charles I, had just been executed in the midst of a civil war and a struggle for power. The silly games men will play! The country was torn by strife and dissention. The atmosphere was tense and charged with hatred, and the outlook for peace and unity was dark. It was in the dark despair of this situation that Sir Robert Shirley decided to do something constructive and creative. He built a village church. Now building a church will not in and of itself, solve any distressing problems, but blessed, before God, is the person who in the midst of crisis and chaos, does something that represents the best of things in the worst of times.
Difficult times come to us all and usually they are very personal.
Disease, like the rain, falls upon the just and the unjust.
Sorrow and grief in one of its many forms visits us all sooner or later.
Marriage vows are broken and relationships go sour.
Children choose to build their lives apart from those who have nurtured and nourished them.
Our lives begin to unravel and our faith crumbles, and the will to go on begins to weaken within us.
CEO's rob the treasury of their company and walk away, and the employees are left holding an empty bag.
Educators get involved in things, which would embarrass a third time-convicted felon.
We watch helplessly as someone we love makes one bad choice after another as some evil inner monster devours a person we love.
An accident occurs and someone we love is gone forever.
Yes! Difficult times can occur in many ways, usually they are very personal.
There is a heart rending scene in that strange movie based on the novel, Forrest Gump. Jenny, the childhood girlfriend of the mentally retarded Forrest Gump, has come home for a few days from one of her many self-destructive prodigal escapades. She and Forrest go to the now abandoned home place where she lived out her tragic years as a child. She was abused and neglected. The house has deteriorated. The roof has caved in, and the front porch and steps have fallen down. And suddenly, the sight of that house brings back to Jenny an overwhelming tide of the tragedy and pain she experienced there as a child. The loneliness, the absence of her mother, the poverty, the physical, emotional and abuse of a drunken father. All of these repressed memories rush in on her and she loses it, and storms toward the house screaming and throwing things. She throws her shoes, clods of dirt, and all the rocks she can find. And when there are no more rocks to throw, she falls exhausted and sobbing to the ground. After an awesome stillness and silence, broken only by sobs, Forrest Gump moves toward her and he sits down beside her saying: "Jenny, sometimes there are just not enough rocks."
We have all been there. All of a sudden some sight, or sound or scene or smell, or a date like Sept. 11 occurs and a trap door to the basement of our soul opens and all the dragons we thought were slain, and all the ghosts we thought were chained and all the pain we thought we had dealt with, come rising up from the dark to engulf and enrage and undo us, and there are not enough rocks to drive them all away. And if you have not been there, you will.
All of us come at sometime in our lives to the edge of things, where we came on Sept. 11 of last year, where we are met by a sense of the inescapable, deep down in our hearts we know that major tragedies are inescapable and we either throw rocks responding in an evil manner or we do something constructive thus being the best in the worst of times.
Thus, Sir Robert Shirley in 1653 built a church and thus did the best of things in the worst of times. Others over the years have done the same:
In the Forrest Gump movie, the reason Forrest Gump loved Jenny was because on the first day he got on the school bus at six years of age, no one would let him sit beside them so he stood up in the aisle, until Jenny said to him, you can sit by me. She did the best of things in the worst of times.
In this past year, we experienced on September 11, the worst of human evil. Innocent children, women and men on commercial airlines, were flown into buildings in acts of terrorism and despicable evil. And on that eventful day, when the world stood still holding its breath, when God himself was speechless, there were firemen and policemen who entered the World Trade Center buildings and went up the stairs. They went up the stairs to help, not down the stairs to escape. Not down the stairs to flee for safety, as did some 20,000 persons, but up the stairs. Up the stairs. Up the stairs.
There was a photo that I saw at the time but have not seen since of the stairwell in one of the world trade center buildings where people were running frightened out of the building, while in the background there was a long line of firemen with jaws clinched and eyes focused straight ahead, moving forward going up the stairs. Here were individuals who did the best of things in the worst of times.
When the plane hit Tower One on Sept. 11th, Carmen Griffith was operating the elevator on the 78th floor as she did every day, but the explosion brought darkness and smoke and fire into the elevator. She pried open the doors and held them, with fire leaping around her legs and hands, so that the passengers could climb out between her legs to the hallway and stairway. She miraculously made it out before the building collapsed and was left only with the scars of the burns, and the memory of holding the door for her passengers to climb out of an elevator which is today no more. She, in a split second, did the best of things in the worst of times.
There is a lady who lives today in Montgomery Alabama, in one of our Methodist Homes for the Aging, whose name is Annie Mae Turner. Her story is that of an educator. In the early l960's she was the President of the AEA but because of her advocacy on behalf of the black students and teachers, when she rotated out of that job, she returned to Union Springs and to Bullock County where the all white School Board refused to give her a teaching job. She had been the President of the Educators of the State, but was unemployable in her own community? Please. She was a member of a small Methodist Church and she worked to get funding for a day care center in a black housing project for working mothers. She did the best of things in the worst of times.
Millard Fuller, a millionaire began to grow disillusioned with the corporate rat race and abandoned his life of luxury and started building houses for the poor. Thus was begun Habit for Humanity, which today has built over 100T homes for the poor.
Pee Wee Reese was the famous shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a tall, short man. He was a giant, little guy. The reason he was tall and a giant was not because of his physical height, but because of an incident that occurred on a hot summer day in Crosby Field in Cincinnati. The infield was warming up for the start of the ball game and he threw the practice ball to first base, where the first black man in a major league uniform, Jackie Robinson was playing. The ugly crowd on this first day of Jackie Robinson's playing career for a major league team was giving him fits. They called him names I will not repeat, they cursed him, they threw things on the field and Pee Wee Reese, enraged with the bigotry being demonstrated by the crowd, fielded the ball and instead of throwing it back to him on first, walked to first base and put his arm around Jackie Robinson. And he said to Jackie Robinson, "You are my friend, my brother, and one day they will regret this kind of bigotry behavior." Yes sir, Pee Wee Reese was a tall, giant of a man, not because of his physical height, but because he did the best of things in the worst of times.
You will have bad times, everybody does, I pray that you will not throw rocks, although that may help for a while, but I pray you will do the best of things in the worst of times.
Consider what Sir Robert Shirley did in 1653.
Consider what you have done in the year 2002.
Here in the church you have done a very visible thing in the renovation of this Sanctuary in the same year that will mark one of the most dastardly deeds of human history.
Consider what was done in Union Springs, Alabama in l968, when a day care center was built for young welfare mothers.
Consider what as was done in Cincinnati at the old Crosby Field when Pee Wee Reese embraced Jackie Robinson.
Consider what Millard Fuller has done through Habit for Humanity.
And consider what was done in New York City, on September 11, 2001, as firemen and policemen went up the stairs!
Consider what was done on a Roman Cross on Golgotha in the year 33AD on a hillside outside of the old city walls of Jerusalem. Jesus as he died, looked down on the soldiers saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."
Consider the ordinary good Samaritan.
The best of things
in the worst of times, that's the story of our people.
Summary: The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Philippi "Let your manner of
life be worthy of the Gospel". It was a time of challenge and difficulty and
the Apostle encourages the early Christians to "not throw rocks" but to live a
life worthy of the Gospel.
I believe that what this means is this:
1. Keep the commandments.
2. Practice the spiritual disciplines. Be methodical, intentional about the
practice of the spiritual life. Pray daily. Give generously to Christian causes.
Keep the Lord's Day and Worship as often as possible. Study the Bible and other
Christian literature. Fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters. Do good
for the needy.
3. Don't do anything that will embarrass the Lord of the Church, nor the
Church. Never do what you know in your heart would embarrass you if it hit the
news.
4. Do the best of things, whatever that means, in the worst of times.
Proverbs 3:5 reads: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
Here are two other proverbs:
"The Lord helps those who help themselves"
"The Lord helps those who trust in Him."
There is ample evidence to support the truth of both and at various times in our lives we have lived our lives on the basis of each one of them. One however comes from the American theories of success while the other comes from the Holy Scriptures. Both are true to an extent but one has its limits while one leads to ultimate and eternal success.
The Bible affirms
in varying and sundry ways, this great truth that "The Lord Will Provide." The
Lord helps those who trust in Him.
The Lord provided protection, when the soldiers of Pharaoh pursued the
Israelites to the edge of the water of the Sea.
The Lord provided guidance, when the Israelites were lost in the wilderness.
The Lord provided in the harsh desert, bread, when the Hebrews were hungry, and
the Lord provided water, when they were thirsty.
In this morning's reading chosen from the Old Testament we encounter the story of God providing water for the thirsty Hebrews who are complaining about their plight in life. And thus being blinded by their own selfishness, they do not sense the water all about them. It takes their leader Moses, who sees the past, the present and the future, to point out that which should be obvious to them. There is water all about us, because the Lord provides for us.
When I was a kid, my dad bought a small plot of land on the edge of town to give us some farming land and to later develop it into a small residential area. The city would not run city water to our property so my Dad decided to do two things: one was to dig a well and the second was to run for the City Council. In time we had both the water from the well and city water. But he was proactive rather than sitting around complaining about having no water, as did the Israelites of old, he took charge and claimed the water that was beneath the earth. I was impressed with him, but he pointed out to me, be impressed with Him who provides the water beneath the earth.
In the dry climate of Palestine, water is an obvious symbol of salvation. God is our salvation because He provides for us.
Here is a lesson which God taught Israel over long years. I hope you have learned this lesson in your short life. He will provide for those who trust in the Lord with all thine heart!
Henry Nouwen, Roman Catholic priest and writer, spent some time working in an aids clinic in San Francisco and was later to comment on the number of young men who were dying. Said he, "I listened to their stories and they were literally dying because of their thirst for love." They were desperately searching for a safe place, for a safe relationship, for a home, for acceptance, for unconditional love, for forgiveness." Thirsting for love. This describes well the generation of the last half-century. We are all thirsting for love. Longing for a safe place, for a safe relationship, for acceptance, for unconditional love, for an affirming word that we are special.
The current situation of our world which is filled with such uncertainty, where the security of family and homeland can no longer be assumed, cries out for the message of God's providence: "Will God take care of His own?" Will God protect the righteous? Will right prevail? Will the forces of goodness prevail? And the Bible answers back: "The Lord will provide if we acknowledge Him.” If in all our ways we acknowledge Him, He will direct our path.
To
Abraham, preparing his own son for sacrifice, God said: I will provide!
To the wandering Hebrews in the dry desert, hungry and thirsty, God said: I
will provide.
To Jesus hanging on a cross and locked in death's sleep in a tomb, God said:
"I will provide.
To you caught in the miserable loneliness of a meaningless life, hungry and
thirsty for a safe place, longing for security, for confidence, for love, God
says: "I will provide."
It would be well for us to recall the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman had gone through five marriages and was living with a man who was not her husband, and it is to her that Jesus offers "Living Water".
We, like wandering Hebrews and the Samaritan Woman, long for living water. For something that will satisfy our inner longing and quench our thirst.
Many do some pretty foolish things to quench this thirst, this inner longing for a safe place, for security, for love, for meaning. Some will beg, borrow, and steal, thinking fulfillment is in the things that we possess. The Israelites wasted a lot of their energy complaining about their sad situation rather than opening their eyes to what God was providing for them. Granted the desert of the Sinai was a far cry from the fertile farm land of Goshen in Egypt from where they had come, but they wasted their time complaining rather than looking for water. It took Moses, in frustration to strike the sands of the Sinai to penetrate the great reservoir of water that lay beneath the sands of the desert. They wasted their time looking backward with regret, rather than forward to the coming Promised Land.
The Israelites focused on physical needs, but God focused on their need to learn to trust Him. Maybe that is why it took them 40 years in the Sinai desert. Maybe that's why most of them never made to the Promised Land. They were just slow learners. Are you? The satisfaction we seek is found in our commitment to God through Jesus Christ. Make that commitment and trust in Him and do not be afraid. God will provide.
The only ultimate way I have discovered to quench our thirst, to satisfy our hunger for significance, for security, for peace, is to draw from the well of living water which is to trust the creative, compassionate, all knowing, all powerful, eternal One made known in Jesus Christ.
Loneliness, temptation, rejection, alienation, all of these common emotions, tend to produce in us an undeniable, unquenchable thirst. We, like the critical Hebrews, like the Samaritan woman; thirst for the living water, and it is only when we open our eyes to that which is all around us, that we discover that God is providing for us.
And the message today is the same as that of the prophet Isaiah: "Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” “Acknowledge him in all thy ways and He shall direct thy path.”