Sermon Nov 12 2006

Now before I launch into the message this morning, I’d like to let you know that, like the rest of us here, I’ve had an up and down week, mostly down. I’ve cycled through many emotions, sometimes feeling unstable and not in control of myself. I’ve tried to cope with those emotions by withdrawing from others at times, thinking I could handle these strong emotions myself, but found all that was doing was making me numb. And to tell the truth, there’s a strong voice in me telling me before I read the verses I’m going to read here in a second that God doesn’t have a ghost of an idea what He’s talking about. That God is out of touch with reality, and pain, and grief. That’s my natural human response to what I am about to read here.

(1 Pete 4:12-19) And just when I am about to toss the Bible down and not pick it up for awhile, I come to Hebrews 4:14-16 (read), and I find that the message is deeper than it looks at first, and I find here the example of Jesus, and my mind immediately shifts to the struggles he endured on this earth during his ministry, the pain and agony of struggling with living into his destiny while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the physical pain of the crucifixion, sure, but the pinnacle of that experience being the moment where Jesus stepped in the gap for the sake of all humanity, and in those moments underwent such suffering that the sky turned black in the middle of the day, an earthquake shook Jerusalem, dead people arose from tombs, and he finally cried out, “It is finished.”

And if I read that story closely, I don’t recall Jesus walking through that experience with a smile slapped on his face, dancing a two-step as he stood before Pilate or the Sanhedrin, or laughing as he carried his cross. And if the stories are true at how Peter’s life came to an end, I’m positive he wasn’t just really excited, overwhelmed with joy when he was crucified for being a follower of Jesus as well. So when Peter suggests to rejoice and praise God in the midst of suffering, I think we can come to the conclusion that he doesn’t mean deny reality or pretend like everything’s ok. And I feel confident in saying this, because this life that God has called us to is at its heart being real and honest, not running away from things that upset us, stretch us, or are painful. So what is the deeper reality here?

Paul Brand, a missionary surgeon to India wrote in his book: Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants, “I have come to see that pain and pleasure come to us not as opposites but as Siamese twins, strangely joined and intertwined. Nearly all my memories of acute happiness, in fact, involve some element of pain or struggle.”

And while that sort of message may not necessarily fly in Hollywood, where movies can tell of lives that have incredible problems and manage to solve the problem in about an hour and a half and everyone walks away feeling great…I think if we’re honest with ourselves and look back at our lives, we will find what Paul Brand found IF we do something essential. We do NOT pretend like the pain does not exist, we do NOT run from our emotions, we DO turn around and face reality head-on, take on the brunt of the storm, depending on Christ.

I dare say if someone ever suggests, "The deepest and rarest and most satisfying joys of my life have come in times of extended ease and earthly comfort." they’re outright lying or out of touch with reality. It isn't true. What's true is what Charles Spurgeon said: "They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls."

The command is found in verse 13: "Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ." Rejoice. Peter has the audacity to tell us in situations of conflict, pain, and suffering to rejoice. When you dive in the sea of affliction, keep on rejoicing. In fact, keep on rejoicing not in spite of the affliction but even because of it. This is not some little piece of advice about the power of positive thinking. This is an utterly radical, abnormal, supernatural way to respond to suffering. It is not for the faint of heart. It is one of the ways those who dare to follow Jesus set the pace, live a life that is radically different from the folks surrounding them who don’t know him.

Experiencing doubt, fear, grief, sadness, and confusion are not bad things, they’re not things to run away from. They’re a part of human existence. Life doesn’t go the way we planned, relatives die, we will die, tragedies (car wrecks, airplane wrecks, suicides) happen, we lose jobs, suffer from broken relationships, wonder about our place in this world. Life is broken. It has been ever since Adam and Eve bought into the first great lie, that the day they ate of the fruit of the tree, they could be like God.

But what God is all about is reaching and transforming his creation into people who recognize what’s broken and simply choose to be people of healing and great love who reverse the brokenness of the world; and they do this without denying the brokenness and pain in themselves…

And I have two basic suggestions for how to approach this problem:

1) We admit we are powerless…that our lives are unmanageable without the relationship God created us to pursue, and

2) We believe that pursuing that open relationship with God can and will both restore us to sanity, enable us to face life, AND begin to restore the face of humanity that is hopelessly broken.

Dealing with #1, it seems to be a bedrock truth that we cannot receive the power to face life head-on until we see our own human limitations and quit struggling to do it ourselves. That’s why it’s so ridiculous on a human level that Peter would dare to suggest that we are to praise God whether things are going great or going down the tubes!

"Count it all joy when you meet various trials," is foolish advice, except for one thing—God, the Creator of the Universe, who has not stepped away from his creation, but comes to meet us in our suffering and transform us as we face it, depending on Him..

One of the youth on Tuesday night asked the question that had been ringing in all of our heads since the time each one of us heard about the fire at some point during the day: “Why us, Lord, why now?” And because that is such a real question, a deep question, Rick Thornton honored the question with the truth. “I DON’T KNOW,” he said to Tanner. “I don’t know.” Rick was admitting reality…we are powerless and our lives are unmanageable without Christ. I think all of us, even the most hardened criminals, the most “self-sufficient”, fabulously wealthy NFL player, or the factory worker working more and more hours to provide for his or her family, we know this.

But most do NOT come to the place where they make the move to number 2…we believe that pursuing this growing relationship with God can both restore us to sanity, enable us to face life, AND begin to restore relationships with humanity that are hopelessly broken. It’s really easy when things are flowing relatively smoothly in life to think that we’re in control…we may even SAY TO OURSELVES that we’re depending on God when it’s obvious both to ourselves and to others that our lives revolve around us, not God. The last two Sundays, our theme has been “Taking an honest look at ourselves,” and that is what this situation demands from us, what God EXPECTS from us, and what God will provide through this trial.

As members of the larger body known as the Church of the Brethren, we are a part of the same spiritual heritage of followers of Jesus called Anabaptists, who found the strength of their beginning in the 16^th century while the Reformation was turning Europe upside-down. And because the Anabaptists believed baptism was a outward sign of a conscious decision made to follow Jesus that simply could not happen when one was a baby, and because the Anabaptists believed that the church, not the state, carried the central meaning of history, they faced intense persecution and execution for living this out. Hans Schlaffer was one of these Anabaptists imprisoned, and while in prison before his execution, Schlaffer wrote a series of prayers to God, of which we will look at two. Pay attention especially to the underlined sections to grasp the transition he made.

O almighty, eternal God, we recognize that we are weak and pray that you would strengthen us with the power of your Holy Spirit, that He would extinguish all human fear in us…we praise, honor, and thank you that you have so graciously called us out of the terrible darkness of this world into your marvelous light…

But Schlaffer’s prayer was not answered in the way he expected. Grief and fear haunted him, and Hans realized that he was deeply troubled and it wasn’t going away. He discovered comfort in seeing the example of Jesus. who agonized in the Garden as his soul felt troubled to the point of death. In the following days and nights before his death Han’s prayer changed: “Therefore we pray, dear Father, that with your divine power you would keep us (hold us) in all difficulties, offense, fear, and anxiety…This is my comfort, O heavenly father, in which Christ will strengthen and keep me with his power. Well, Lord, I will lay all my worry, fear, and anxiety on you for I have mightily experienced your help, and you will (I hope) not forsake me to the end, but in my greatest need and weakness show praise and glory, and in my physical death reveal eternal life, that all may give themselves to Christ and persist in your will and work to the end.”

And in the time that changes between these prayers, a clear difference emerges between the two. In the first, Schlaffer prays that God would take away the fear of those imprisoned; extinguish it. But in the second, Schlaffer prays NOT that God would take away their fears, NOT that they would deny their fears, but that God would hold them, carry them, empower them in and through all difficulties, offense, fear, and anxiety. Just after that final prayer, Schlaffer was beheaded for his faith.

Now is the time to show where we, Middle River Church, get a chance to show where our treasure is and the kind of people God is shaping us into.

We NEED to stand together as a church family, shift priorities as necessary (sometimes painfully) to attack this challenge together.

We NEED to trust the leadership of our church to make sound decisions about the direction we head as a family (that involves our leaders listening to all, but eventually making hard decisions for the good of the whole); that's why we've called them out as leaders, and why our identity is not found in what I want, but in the direction WE go.

We NEED to eliminate from our vocabulary words such as "them," "they," and "those people." The church is US, and God carries high expectations for us to love one another and build one another up in this process; especially in times of disagreement. Let's disagree well, and act as followers of Jesus are called to act, and seek forgiveness and take a shot to our pride when we fail. Let's do this together.

We NEED to lean on God in this time...the most obvious way we can do this is through a commitment to prayer; individually and together. Those who gathered Wednesday evening at Emerson and Elaine’s house to pray together experienced a powerful sense of unity and identity...let's not walk away and forget that goal we are called to. Consistency in prayer and unity will define us into the future. Will we continue to gather together in prayer even when it seems tedious or like hard work?

This life is impermanent, and things are impermanent, but I was struck after the fire to see the cross here in front of us today remain on the alter, the wooden cross in the baptistry, and our neighbor down the road, Linda Sanders, in the midst of tears, told me how even when the fire was leaping up into the steeple, she was struck by the fact that the cross remained. All things will pass away, but the word of God stands forever, and he stands with us now. Doug Southers, member at Rileyville Church of the Brethren, called on Tuesday, and simply said, “You’re gonna find what you’re made of, Nate. The church, and yourself.” So let’s all take responsibility for our part, be a part of the process of recovery, and trust and pray for our leaders to make good decisions for the future of our church. And above all, we MUST MUST MUST root our identity in Christ. We’re powerless to face this alone, and will fragment and shatter eventually if we fail. I don’t want that on my record when I stand before God and I don’t think you do either…