Among the incredible promises of the Bible, there is the one in which Jesus said: “When two or three gather in my name, I am with you.”
We live in a community in which there has seeped into the reservoir of our common lives great uncertainty.
Hurricane Katrina has revealed to us once again that we are a hare’s breath from annihilation. But even in the midst of this time of uncertainty and pain and in the midst of the darkness there is light, in the center of despair, there is hope, for we continue in spite of earthquake, wind and fire, to experience God’s presence in a caring spirit.
When we come together in pain: There He is with us.
When we come together to pray. He is with us.
When we come together in compassion to help, He is with us.
When we grow quiet in worship and prayer, there is a holy presence.
I don’t read tabloid newspapers as a habit, although in a long line at the supermarket, I have been known to glance at the headlines of one called The National Enquirer. Now I don’t linger on the photos, but I do look at the headlines.
One read: “I Found Jesus Under MY Wallpaper”. That one caught my attention as well as the one which read “Fountain of Youth Found in NYC subway toilet”. I’m not going to touch that one, but I do want to suggest a better place to find Jesus in a time of uncertainty than behind your wallpaper.
There are many today who have experienced in life a time of disbelief and the lack of assurance. Many have withdrawn from family, from church, from the miracle of human contact, and they are truly alone and in despair.
Such feelings always come in the aftermath of times of great tragedy. On calm days God can be found in gentle breezes and candle light, but like the O.T. Prophet, who could not find God in earthquake, wind and fire. So we find ourselves looking for Jesus.
Think about this incredible assuring word.
When a married couple kneels together beside their bed in prayer, Jesus is there.
When a family bows their heads to give thanks at the dinner table, He is there.
When you pray beside a bed in a hospital with someone who is suffering, He is there.
When storms destroy our communities and we bind together with others who care, He is there.
You want to know where to find Jesus? Here's the secret: Get together with someone else who is a follower of Christ for the express purpose of studying His word, or worshiping or working for him to lift up the fallen or binding the broken hearted, and He will be there, guaranteed!
It is a common experience to feel alone and to experience despair in times like we are facing today. When you are alone and have no shelter from the storm, despair overwhelms you. The Psalmist cries out "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. Answer me, O Lord, out of the goodness of your love. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foot hold. In your great mercy turn to us." It's very easy to lose hope in this world of ours, especially when we are on our own.
I know that you have seen the news coverage. So many images I can not deal with and have to walk away, for the memory of destruction is to fresh, and the evidence of brokenness is yet to visible. But there is one vision which I will recall of this past week:
There was this African American man in New Orleans who was placing his little frightened child in one of those open cages under a noisy, swirling helicopter. And the father said to his son: “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to be right along in just a minute.” I’ll be there.”
And that’s what God says to us today: I’ll be there. I’ll be right along.
Jesus once said: “I must go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am you can be also.”
Elizabeth Kubler Ross over her lifetime interviewed thousands of individuals who experienced near death experiences but who told of a comforting presence that was a common experience. In every culture, in every race and with every religion, there were the stories of a comforting presence. “I Will Be There.” You can die by yourself, but never alone.
We are all, an overnight disaster away, from having all the hope knocked out of us and being left alone in this world. You can tell me all day how Job had his fortune restored and was given a new wife, new land, and new children. But that doesn't return those whom he lost.
So it is easy to fall into the trap of experiencing this world as a very cold and lonely place. Thus the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes wrote: “Vanity of Vanity, all is Vanity."
But you have today what the Preacher in Ecclesiastes did not know, and that is that you have a Savior who said, “I will be with you.” We are not alone. You have the Lord Jesus and he will not abandon you in times of great trouble.
One of the many reasons we come to God’s house is to claim the promise that here he can be found. In this place there is a whisper, I am with you. Every thing about this old building whispers to you “I am here.”
In the stories of the resurrection appearances of Jesus there is the wonderful story of the Emmaus Road, where Jesus walks with the defeated disciples and they do not recognize him until they are at table. Then they know that he is there with them.
May you know today that he is here at table with you today. For here we gather to claim the promise that he will be with us.
The Psalmist affirms our cherished held beliefs about God who is one who can see us through difficult days.
God…Forgives our iniquity;
Heals all of our diseases;
Redeems our life from the pit;
Crowns or gives to us his steadfast love and mercy;
Satisfies you with good as long as you live.
Don’t you love this poet’s choice of words? “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name and forget not all his benefits…“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Shallow versions of Christianity will portray God as a benignly supportive therapist with a “whatever” attitude, or as a harsh and terrifying judge. But for the Psalmist, he sees God as one in whom mercy, grace and love will always triumph over retribution.
In the words of the Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kung, “From the first to the last page of the Bible, it is clear that God’s will is aimed at our well-being at all levels…God’s will is a helpful, healing, liberating, saving will. God wills life, joy, freedom, peace, salvation…both of the individual and of humanity as a whole. And this is the meaning of all that Jesus proclaims.”
There is always some talk, ill informed though it may be, when great tragedy reigns down on humanity, such as war in the Mid-east or the destructive winds of Hurricane Katrina from the Gulf waters, that God is punishing someone for not living up to his standards.
Someone said to me last week: “God is showing the bad people of New Orleans and Biloxi that he is not pleased.” My response to that is “If God is responsible for this havoc, then what is he showing the good people of New Orleans and Biloxi?”
I have dealt with this ill informed, misunderstanding before, but lest you fall into this trap and blame God for something which either sinful man or mother nature or global warming is causing, let me be very clear: God is not in the business of retribution. He is not in to targeting of a few sinful persons and wiping out thousands of innocent bystanders. He is not paying back anyone through these horrendous events. If he is, what about your sins? If He is out to get people who make mistakes, he would have targeted some of us first.
Listen to The Words Of Holy Scripture, voiced by the Psalmist:
God, Forgives our iniquity;
Heals all of our diseases;
Redeems our life from the pit;
Crowns or gives us his steadfast love and mercy;
Satisfies you with good as long as you live.
In Psalm 103 we are taught about the nature of God:
1. The Lord is merciful. Transgressors can return to God again and again, confessing their sin, confident that here will be found one who judges them in love and who tempers justice with kindness.
2. The Lord is gracious.
3. The Lord is slow to anger. Although some may be troubled by the thought that the Lord gets angry at all, the Bible seems to indicate that although God will seek out alternatives to wrath, there is a limit to his patience, yet His is “slow to anger.”
4. The Lord abounds in steadfast love. The rich Hebrew concept of blessed, or steadfast love comes from the Prophetic writings of Hosea, While human beings are fickle in their love for each other and for God, but not so with God, for He is one who is utterly reliable, is merciful, is slow to anger, and abounds in steadfast love.
There is a wonderful chorus that captures our response to great tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina or 9/11:
Through it all, through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God;
Through it all, through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon God’s word.
One of a series of questions that the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, would ask the early Methodists at what was called “Class Meetings,” which were small groups that met weekly, was the question, “Are you going on to Perfection?” And also “Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?”
Wesley asked this question about “perfection” because it came out of his understanding of the expectations of Jesus who taught the way of love. Jesus had said, “What is it to love those who love you? I say love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.” Then came this statement: “You are to be perfect as God is perfect.”
So Wesley would ask, “Are you going on to perfection?”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t do too well with people who think they are perfect or better than everyone else. What an attitude. I have only known one person who approached perfection, and my wife married him forty three years ago.
That was a joke. The truth is none are perfect, or as the Bible says: “None are without sin,” and yet, there is this statement of Jesus in Matthew 5:48 where the Lord has been talking about love of your enemy and he says: “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Bible clearly calls for holy living as we see in many of the teachings of Jesus.
To grow in godliness and Christ likeness, takes intentional effort and is a worthy goal.
Over the past decade or so, personal mission statements have become rather fashionable. You see these missional statements in businesses and in the church.
The church’s mission statement…”First United Methodist Church of Pensacola is a Christian family that worships God, grows in Christ, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, puts our faith to work in the world.”
Even individuals clarify their priorities by these statements of purpose. My friend Rick Dye rewrites his missional statement on New Year’s Eve every year, and makes his family rewrite theirs. I have always had this vision of his son John trying to sit still long enough to write this missional statement. For that matter, it was funny to imagine Rick sitting still long enough to write a very long statement. Well, by nature, these statements are to be short, so maybe it was doable for the Dyes, and is doable for us.
He sure taught and encouraged me in formulating this rather cryptic statement of, “Here is why I get up in the morning. Here is the reason I go to work. Here is the reason I do what I do and why I do it the way that I do it.” What drives you? What motivates you?
The Apostle Paul states his mission statement in the scripture today in Philippians: “For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
At another point, the Apostle wrote: “This one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Here was a man who took seriously his pursuit of perfection.
It is interesting to note that the letter to the Philippian church was written while Paul was in prison. It is strange because there is a sense of contentment and joy about life in this man who sits in prison.
Here Paul states that it is his calling to, “live his life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” So I invite you to join with me in our statement to Christ.