PMC
March 1, 2009
Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15
Our overall theme for Lent this year is “our lives are in your hands”. The central question for us will be – can we trust God with our lives? Can we let God control our destiny?
This morning I want to tell a couple of personal stories and then I want to come back to our biblical texts and look at what they might be saying to us today.
I grew up in a Christian home and was taught about God from the day I was born. I can’t remember not thinking about God.
In fact, when I was 4 or 5 years old I remember asking my parents who God was and feeling really sad afterward because whatever they told me didn’t help. I still had more questions.
This longing for God led me to make a decision to become a Christian around age eleven. That was a very meaningful time for me but it didn’t resolve my questions about God or even the feelings of restlessness.
Throughout my teenage years I continually made new commitments to follow Jesus and determined to do better. Even though I was a fairly content with life I always longed for something more – something deeper.
I felt like I knew what it meant to live the Christian life but it seemed kind of lifeless – without much joy.
In college, I remember one evening feeling all alone and crying out to God for help. I didn’t really know what I was asking for but in the midst of it all I experienced a peace that I had never felt before.
I never saw any lights or heard any voices but deep down in my being I felt loved by God – I felt cared for. For me, I experienced a peace that surpassed understanding.
I can’t really explain it, but I knew in a new way that God delighted in me. I knew that I didn’t have to prove my life to God. I knew that God loved me even when I messed up.
That experience was a significant turning point in my life and it changed how I viewed God and how I experienced God.
Now, that experience didn’t take away all my questions. I still have many questions for God. I don’t understand why there is so much suffering and violence in the world. I don’t understand why so many people in the world go hungry every night. I don’t understand why human beings do such mean things to each other.
I have doubts from time to time about God and there are even days when I question my calling as a pastor. I struggle with things as we all do – but in the midst of it all, this sense that God loves me and delights in me as a child of God – continues to nurture me and sustain me through the ups and downs of life.
The other story I want to tell this morning is about the time Marilyn and I moved to North Caroline to start a Mennonite Church in Raleigh.
At the time, we had a one and a half year old child and another one was on the way. We were offered to house sit a home for three months while we looked for our own home. Someone else stored all of our belongings in their basement.
A group of about 15 folks living in the Raleigh area wanted us to come and help them start a church, but they told us it might take up to two years before they were ready to get started.
Since I had worked as a carpenter for several years, one person invited me to work for him until the church started.
So, Marilyn and I stepped out in faith, sold our home in Harrisonburg, VA and moved to Raleigh.
Now those first few months were not easy. Marilyn was very pregnant. It was hot and humid. We were looking for a home. We were learning to know all new people. We had a lot of decisions to make. It was stressful.
We also discovered early on that home prices in Raleigh were much higher than in Harrisonburg and we were not sure we could even afford a home there. We didn’t have much of an income and the banks weren’t sure they should lend to us.
There were many days we questioned our move to Raleigh and we longed to be with our close friends in Harrisonburg.
And yet in the midst of it all, we bought a home and we were able to move into it one week before our daughter Mikaela was born.
Eight months after moving to Raleigh we had our first public worship service. In three years, Marilyn and I were sharing a full time position as pastor of the church.
We grew through that step of faith and we learned a lot about waiting on God and God’s timing.
Now, what we did in moving to Raleigh is not all that different from what many of you have done along the way. Most of you have stepped out in faith and acted with little knowledge of how things would turn out.
You trusted God to provide for you.
I know that for me, it is in the moving and acting on my faith that I experienced God. I didn’t know the path ahead of time – the path was made by going forward.
Now, I share my personal story this morning because I have come to believe that at the center of the Christian life is knowing that God delights in us. It is knowing that we are beloved children of God.
For me personally, I know that I am able to take risks and small steps of faith, because I know that God loves me. I can risk making mistakes because I know down deep that God delights in me.
There is a passage in Luke 12 where Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about what they will eat or wear or drink. And the reason he gives for not worrying is found in verse 32 where he says – “do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Jesus says you don’t have to worry about food and shelter or even dying because God takes pleasure in giving you the kingdom. God wants us to have fullness of life.
Jesus knows his disciples will struggle and suffer and may not always have enough food to eat, but because they know God loves them they don’t have to be anxious in the midst of the trials that come their way.
You know, when parents love their children and the children know they are loved unconditionally – those children can go through some very tough times without living in fear or being anxious.
When children know they are loved and delighted in – and not just a bother to their parents – those children have a security that allows them to live life with abandonment.
And like any good parent – God also loves us and takes great delight in giving us the kingdom.
One of the most moving pictures of God in the entire NT is the story of the prodigal son. The wayward son is returning home to apologize to his father and to say that he will be his slave if he will just take him back.
But to the son’s surprise – the father runs to meet him, gives him a big hug, kisses him, and then he throws a big party of welcome home for him.
God delights in pursuing us!
God delights in forgiving us!
God wants to sing over us and dance with us.
God wants to shower us with extravagant mercy!
Jesus, at his baptism, hears this same kind of bold blessing from God – “you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Before Jesus does anything or goes anywhere in his ministry – he receives this blessing from God – I am pleased with you!
God’s blessing of Jesus at his baptism shaped Jesus’ whole life and his ministry. This core identity experience gave Jesus a profound intimacy with God and an all-consuming thirst to do the things of God.
It was God’s love for Jesus and his delight in him that propelled Jesus into his public ministry and gave Jesus the strength to face temptation and to battle the wild beasts in the desert.
God’s call on our life will involve self-sacrifice and self-denial and suffering but I think too often we look at God’s call on our life in too negative a way.
Because God loves us and is pleased to give us the kingdom – many times God’s call on your life is what you most deeply desire.
Most of you have seen the movie, Chariots of Fire, or know the story line. It is about a young man who is studying to be a missionary in China.
But he is also a runner and he wants to compete in the 1924 Olympics. He struggles mightily with this because to compete in the Olympics he would have to stop his studies in order to train properly.
His sister tells him that he should forget about running and listen to God’s call to the mission field.
His response to her was – “I believe God made me for a purpose; but he also made me fast and when I run I feel God’s pleasure. To give it up would be to hold God in contempt; to win is to honor God.”
Many times God’s call on our lives is what we most deeply desire and God wants to bless the world through those gifts.
I’ve said this here before but I love Frederick Buechner’s statement on calling. He writes – “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Often times our calling in life is the place where the spark jumps across the gap between your passion and the world’s need.
This can be anywhere. It can be in the classroom, the science lab, the marketplace, the doctor’s office, or in the pulpit.
When God’s love for us gives us our identity and shapes the vision of what our lives are really all about, then it doesn’t matter whether God gives us a roadmap for the journey. We know God will provide for us.
I read recently that a college chaplain said most of the calls she receives from parents is not about their kids partying or wasting their time – but about kids changing their majors.
She said parents complained that their children had gone on a mission trip or were tutoring some children and those experiences changed their career goals.
The parents were more concerned about job security than about God’s vocation for their children.
Too often we make decisions based on job security before we think of listening for God’s call.
Most of the world won’t understand this, but if God gives you the kingdom – the American dream will look puny. If you have God’s kingdom – then you won’t have to cling to material possessions.
If you are invested in God’s kingdom – then it won’t matter if the stock market crashes.
God knows we need to work for food and clothing – but we don’t have to be anxious about it.
We can only proclaim boldly – that our lives are in God’s hands – if we know deep in our souls that God loves us and delights in us.
One of the signs that God can be trusted for the journey is the rainbow.
In Genesis we learn how God, after seeing how wicked people could be with each other, decided to destroy the earth with a flood.
But after the flood God makes a covenant with Noah to “never again” destroy the earth.
What is interesting to me about the story of Noah is that God is the one who is changed from the flood.
The flood, which was meant as God’s judgment on the people, did not change people’s hearts.
In fact one of the things that we often don’t talk about is that when Noah got off the ark – he got drunk and one of his sons went in and violated him.
The problem before the flood was broken relationships and after the flood it is just more of the same – more broken relationships.
The family God saved from the flood has the same problems as the people before.
After the flood God concludes in Genesis 8: 21 – that the “inclination of the human heart is evil from youth”.
God realizes that we are going to continue to sin. We are going to continue to be alienated from God, each other, creation, and ourselves.
The only change after the flood is that God makes a new commitment to never destroy the earth again.
In essence, what God says after the flood is – “I am not going to let the rebellion of human beings sway me from my vision and my purpose for creation”.
God’s purpose and work in the world is to heal, forgive, and restore life to wholeness no matter how destructive human beings are.
And so God gives us a rainbow as a reminder of God’s commitment to continue to work for healing and reconciliation in the world.
The rainbow is a reminder that God’s will for us is life and not death. The God of the rainbow is the God we can trust our lives with.
The God of the rainbow is the same God who now says to us – you are my beloved son or daughter – with you I am well pleased.
I am aware this morning that hearing God say to us “you are my beloved son or daughter” is not easy to hear in a world filled with voices shouting –
- you are not pretty enough.
- you are not good enough.
- you need a bigger house or a new car.
- you need to earn more money.
- you are too fat or too thin.
- you don’t have enough education.
- or you need to prove your worth.
These negative voices can be so loud and persistent that it is easy to believe them and to reject the core truth of our lives – we are God’s beloved children. God delights in us. God wants to give us the kingdom.
So on a personal level the question for us during Lent is – can we trust God with our lives? Can we recover our core identity as God’s beloved children?
God wants to give us the kingdom so we can live freely and fully and carry God’s blessing into a hurting world.
And the question for the church is the same one. Can we collectively trust God with our lives?
As a congregation, we have been on a journey to see where God may be calling us to put down some roots.
In these next few weeks we are going to be looking at a specific building and location. We have a decision to make – is this the place where God is leading us? Is this the community God wants us to be a part of?
If we make the choice to purchase this new building we will then have many other choices to make that can also threaten to splinter or divide us. And to think about raising money to buy the building can make us anxious.
The question is – as we discern together what God is calling us to be and do – can we trust that our church is in God’s hands? Can we let God control our destiny?
Can we renew a sense that we are “God’s beloved community” sent to be a blessing to others?
This congregation has experienced God’s faithfulness over the years, but once again we have to put our decisions and this church’s mission in God’s hands.
I believe deeply that God has something in mind for us as a church. I believe God has a work for us to do. God has a community to create. God has people to love. God has lives to save and restore. God is building a kingdom and wants us to participate fully in it.
When we know personally and collectively that “our lives are in God’s hands” then we have nothing to fear about the future. God will be with us and give us the resources we need. God will provide.
Do you want to trust God with your life today?
Do we want to trust God with our life today?