Maney’s Musings

Sermon preached Sunday, July 20, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Genesis 28:10-19a; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Psalm 139:1-11.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is the Human Condition?

Good morning, St. Andrew’s! What do you hope for? Do you hope for happiness, both for yourself and your loved ones? Perhaps you hope for good health or financial security. Maybe you hope for a promotion or even a new job. Perhaps you hope for healing and recovery, either in your body or in a broken relationship. Maybe you are praying for a loved one or even your enemy. Or perhaps you just hope that today I will not preach for such a long time. Whatever it is you hope for, as Paul reminds us in today’s epistle lesson, it is something you do not have or are able to see (Romans 8:24). What is more important, the nature of what we hope for also tells us where our priorities are, either time-bound here on earth or eternal. 

Yet, we need to consider our priorities very carefully. If we put our hope in things of this world, however noble and honorable they are, we will ultimately be disappointed, won’t we? Because the truth is that we live in a fallen, broken, and sinful world, a world that is full of pain and suffering that is often exacerbated by the gift of human free used wrongly or incorrectly, and as a result we are subject to decay and death. So even if we or our loved ones recover from an illness about which we prayed, or we find our dream job or person, or establish financial security, our bodies will continue to decay and we will eventually die, and then all in this world we hoped for will be gone and become irrelevant. After all, even Lazarus, whom Jesus resuscitated, eventually died again and with him so did all his hopes and dreams. No, if the basis of our hope is on a particular outcome in this world, regardless of how noble and lofty our hopes are or whether our prayers are answered, we will ultimately be disappointed. Does this mean we should not pray or hope for these things? Certainly not! It simply means we live in a transient world that is awaiting its final redemption as Paul reminds us today (Romans 8:19ff). 

But this is all rather depressing, isn’t it? That is why it is especially important for us to hear what Paul has to say in today’s epistle lesson because he rightly points us to the basis of hope that will ultimately not disappoint us.

Where is God’s Grace?

So what is the basis for real hope, the kind that will not ultimately disappoint us? Paul tells us in Romans 8:23ff—we eagerly hope for the redemption of our bodies. In other words, Paul is encouraging us to take an eternal perspective on life, one that sees life as not consisting of “stuff” or health or fame or power; but rather as having a deep and abiding relationship with the God who loves us and gave himself for us so that the kind of life-giving relationship we need to live with God now and after our body’s death is possible. Paul knew this firsthand because of his encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus and because of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life that reminded him that he was (and is) God’s child. This, in turn, enabled him to see life in a more permanent light, as having a relationship with God. 

This eternal perspective also allowed Paul to view the things of this life with a different perspective. He understood that nothing in this world is permanent and consequently he did not place his ultimate hope on things of this world. This allowed him to be content with whatever life brought him, either good or bad (Phil 4:11ff). It allowed him to bear his suffering because as he tells us in today’s lesson, he saw his suffering as temporary when viewed from an eternal perspective. In fact, not only was Paul able to bear his sufferings, he reports in Romans 5:3ff that he rejoiced in his sufferings because they produce perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope that does not disappoint because God has poured out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This testimony is no small thing when we consider Luke’s accounts of Paul in Acts and Paul’s own description of his suffering for the Gospel and an especially deadly event he describes in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11.

No, for Paul life was more than just physical health and material abundance; as he tells us in Romans 8, it was growing to be like the One who loved him and gave himself for him. It was a perspective that was based on faith and trust, a faith that allowed Paul to proclaim boldly that we who have the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, are God’s adopted children and heirs of God. Moreover, it was a trust verified by Paul’s living life and allowing God to demonstrate his trustworthiness, something I talked about three weeks ago when we looked at Abraham. This was what allowed Paul to deal with his suffering and as he reminds us in today’s epistle lesson, that grace is available to us today to help us bear our own burdens.

Where is the Application?

To gain the kind of eternal perspective that Paul had that is necessary to help us develop a basis for hope that will not ultimately disappoint and to deal with life’s dark moments in the interim, we must remember our lessons from last week as well as from this week—that by his death and resurrection, God has made it possible for us to have a relationship with him again, that the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, is in us each day and he helps us bear our burdens, and that no matter how bleak this life seems, our sufferings are only temporary when we see life from an eternal perspective. 

But let’s face it; sometimes this promise just isn’t enough, is it? Sometimes we can get so discouraged and feel so all alone that we are tempted to give up. This business of growing to be like Christ and developing an eternal perspective does not come easily. So what can we do in those moments? What grace is available to us? While I could list several things, I am going to focus on only two things today—prayer and the willful act of remembering—because they are critical in helping us grow in our relationship with God and I want to encourage you to focus on them by not cluttering up your plate with lots of suggestions.

First, when we have reached the end of our rope and are feeling hopeless, it is especially important that we give these concerns up to God in prayer. Paul reminds us today that the Holy Spirit within us prays “Abba, Father!” “Abba” is a deeply personal term for Father and can only be used inside an intimate relationship. So in praying like this, the Spirit himself reminds us that we who are Christ’s are children of God, and as children we have the unique privilege to seek his help and to deepen our relationship with him through prayer. If you do not know what to pray for but want to pray nevertheless, that is a tangible reminder of the Spirit’s presence in you, seeking to help you deepen your relationship with God and praying for you when you cannot. 

If you do not have it in you to pray, then go the psalms and pray them; make them your own. When I have reached the end of my rope or when I am feeling God’s absence in my life—an absence that in itself reminds me that God has been present in my life—I have found Psalms 23, 25, 27, 31, 42, 56, 62, 63, and 143 to be particularly helpful. They speak of the human condition and about the trustworthiness of God. I have even prayed Psalm 88, the most desolate in the Psalter, because in the very act of praying it, I am acknowledging my utter helplessness and in a desperate act of trust, I am giving up myself and my situation to God. I also am reminding myself that I am not in this alone. And of course when I am feeling all alone in this world, I pray the psalm we read this morning, Psalm 139, that marvelous testimony to God’s intimate knowledge and care for us. 

I have been encouraging you to read the Daily Office and you will recall that you can read the entire Psalter in seven weeks if you follow it. Reading from the Psalter each day reminds me that God can and does have the power to take care of my loved ones and me, even when I do not fully understand how he does so, but then that requires an act of faith and trust too, does it not? 

Reading from the Psalter does not change the circumstances in my life but I have always found relief from life’s burdens when I read from it and I have committed several passages from the psalms to memory to help me in moments of great need. For example, when I become afraid of something or of an outcome like my mom’s situation or my ordination, I remember this passage from Psalm 56, “O Most High, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid” (Psalm 56:2b-4). Again, praying the psalms does not necessarily change the situation but I have never failed to receive grace, strength, and comfort when I pray them; they allow me to tap God’s grace and remind me that Christ’s grace is sufficient for me. When you are bearing great burdens or the burden of others who are suffering, and you don’t think you have it in you to do so or you just don’t know what to pray for (or how), try giving your burdens to God by praying the Psalms. In doing so you will be deepening your relationship with God and helping yourself build an eternal perspective of life. I promise you will not be disappointed. 

Or when you do not have a prayer in you and/or the Psalter is not readily available but you desire to pray anyway, try praying these two simple lines, taken from Scripture: “Into your hands I commend my spirit” and “Your will, not mine, be done.” Doing so requires an act of faith and trust that you believe God is in charge despite evidence to the contrary and that you trust his good will for you and all his creatures. Repeat this prayer as often as you need, to remind you of these great truths and to help you develop an eternal perspective. I always end my daily morning prayers with the last line of this prayer (not my will, but yours) and have found that it has increased my trust in God because it reminds me that his will is always good and perfect.

Second, when you are discouraged and life seems overwhelming, take time to remember God’s mighty acts in the life of his people and your life. Remembering is an important biblical concept and we are constantly exhorted to remember God and his saving acts in history so that we will not fall away in our relationship with him and think that either we can live life without God or that we are really all alone. I have told you about some of God’s mighty acts in my life in previous sermons and one thing I try to do these days is to remember God’s mighty act of bringing faithful people like you into my life, people who encourage me about my mom and tell me you are praying for her. It doesn’t change her situation but it helps me bear it better. And so I thank God for his grace manifested and expressed, in part, through you. Thank you. 

In closing, I return to the question I posed at the beginning of this sermon. What do you hope for? If you hoped for a short sermon today, I’m not sure whether you found much satisfaction. But seriously, will you choose to put your ultimate hope and trust in things that are temporary, finite, and fleeting or will you choose to put your ultimate hope and trust in the One who loved you and gave himself for you so that you can live with him now and for all eternity? If you choose the latter, it will not guarantee you a trouble-free life. Nor does it mean we should stop praying and hoping for our desired outcomes for ourselves or our loved ones. What it will guarantee is that you will never be disappointed because God loves you, created you to have a relationship with him forever, i.e., created you with and for an eternal perspective, and has done what is necessary to make that happen. All you have to do is say, “yes,” to God’s gracious invitation through Christ and he will help you navigate life’s darkest moments and then give you a new body someday and allow you to live with him in a place where there never again will be any suffering, sorrow, sickness, pain, or fear. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Sermon delivered Sunday, July 13, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Genesis 25:19-34; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; Psalm 119:105-112.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is the Human Condition?

Good morning, St. Andrew’s! In today’s gospel lesson Jesus warns us about some of the difficulties involved in hearing and understanding God’s word for us and we can relate, can’t we? Who among us at one time or another has not had difficulty in understanding some passages of Scripture? After all, this very issue is one of the main reasons why people are reluctant or unwilling to lead small group Bible studies! Or who among us has not at one time or another been too busy with life or too consumed with our own worries that we have neglected our daily disciplines of prayer and Bible reading? It might be the demands of our job or family. It might be health or financial troubles. Maybe it is a shattered interpersonal relationship. Whatever the trouble or concern, it is certainly easy for us to identify with those who struggle to hear and understand God’s Word. 

And as we think about Jesus’ words in this parable and start applying its lessons to our own lives, we can find ourselves to be quite uncomfortable because what Jesus is really talking about is the state and nature of our relationship with God, something that really is a matter of life and death. After all, in Jesus’ parable, only one in four ever seems to hear and understand God’s word and bear fruit. Those aren’t exactly good odds, are they? Moreover, based on Jesus’ words, we are left wondering if it is entirely up to us to get our relationship with God right. 

Perhaps you are one of those people right now who is struggling mightily with something that is preventing you from developing your relationship with God or that is choking it off. Perhaps you are afraid because it feels like you are being left to your own devices to develop a relationship with God and it feels like you are just spinning your wheels. If you are, I want to encourage you to take heart and hope this morning because this is not the end of the story. God never leaves those of us who seek him to our own devices.

Where is God’s Grace?

We see this truth powerfully affirmed in our epistle lesson in which Paul declares that there is now no condemnation for those of us in Christ. By taking on our flesh and allowing himself to be crucified, God himself bore the punishment for our sins and made reconciliation and relationship with him possible again. He did what we cannot do on our own because we are broken and sinful people. The cross is the symbol of God’s justice for us and we can remember thankfully the extent to which God will go to make a relationship with him possible. If God loves us enough to suffer torture and death for our sake, why would he leave us to our own devices as we seek to develop our relationship with him?

But sometimes we Christians stop at the cross and forget the other magnificent truth contained in our epistle this morning. Not only has God acted decisively for us once and for all, he has promised to give us the Holy Spirit to live with us each day to help us grow in our relationship with him. Paul was so sure of this fact that he declares boldly that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ, i.e., the Holy Spirit, we do not belong to him, and if we do not belong to Christ we do not have life in us!

Does this mean we can relax and take it easy and let the Holy Spirit do all the work in developing our relationship with God? What would happen to any relationship if one party let the other party do all the work? The relationship would eventually die and our relationship with God is no different. God will not allow us to escape our responsibilities in our relationship with him; we must do our part to help the relationship grow. What he does promise, however, is to be with us every day to help us in our struggles that threaten to destroy our relationship with him and to overcome our sinful and fallen nature that makes us hostile toward God and threaten to destroy us. We must do the work and humbly submit ourselves to God’s presence with us in the Holy Spirit, and if we do, God promises to be there to help us.

Where is the Application?

So how does this apply to Jesus’ parable in our Gospel lesson this morning? While Jesus certainly expects us to take responsibility for our spiritual growth, as today’s Gospel lesson makes abundantly clear, he never expects us to go it alone in our journey toward Christian maturity. After all, didn’t he tell his disciples on the night before he died that it was to their advantage for him to go away so that he could send the Advocate to guide them in all truth (John 16:7ff)? For this to happen, however, we must have faith to accept his promise to be with us and do the things that are necessary on our part to cultivate the Holy Spirit’s presence in us so that we learn to recognize him and the help he brings. 

The person in Jesus’ parable who heard the word gladly but then fell away when trouble and persecution came did so because he did not do the things needed to develop the necessary deeper soil, i.e., a deeper faith and trust in God, that would to allow the Holy Spirit to help strengthen him to withstand his trouble and persecution. While Jesus doesn’t say exactly what the person did not do, it is not hard for us to imagine. The person likely did not engage in the daily disciplines of Bible reading and prayer or get plugged into a group of believers to help him grow in faith and understanding, and to help sustain him when times got tough. In all likelihood, the person probably had other priorities in life that were more important than having a relationship with God—job, family, friends, hobbies, etc.—and so never took the time needed to ask the Holy Spirit to help him in his faith journey or reflect on the Spirit’s presence and activity in his life. So when trouble came, as it inevitably will, the person simply did not have the resources needed to withstand the trouble and know God well enough to trust and rely on him to see him through.

Likewise, the person who heard the word but who allowed the cares of life to choke off the development of his relationship with God did not have the needed perspective and will to allow the Holy Spirit to help sustain him in life’s darkest hours, power that can only come from an intimate knowledge and trust in the power of God to sustain and ultimately deliver us. Rather than seeing life as attaching oneself to the Source and Author of all life the way Paul did in today’s epistle lesson when he talked about living life in the Spirit and about the power of the Spirit to raise our mortal bodies to life, a perspective that shaped all of Paul’s priorities in life and oriented toward becoming like Christ, the person in Jesus’ parable apparently saw life as a biological function, living in the here and now rather than seeing life from an eternal perspective. As a result, the person had some misplaced priorities in which the things of life became more important than having life itself and it ultimately killed his relationship with God. That was Esau’s big mistake, wasn’t it? He gave up his spiritual blessings from God for something that was immediate, finite, and transitory. 

Regardless of motives—and we need not believe the people in Jesus’ parable were particularly bad or evil—unlike the person who had the good soil, and who took the time and effort needed to allow the Holy Spirit to work in him, these two persons did not do what it takes to cultivate the Holy Spirit’s presence and were therefore left to their own devices because the Spirit never forces himself on anyone to make them do something against their will, good or bad.

So what can we learn from this? First, we must embrace God’s promise to be with us each day and do the things needed to cultivate his presence so that we recognize the Spirit’s presence and power in our lives. If we want a relationship with God, we must first have the faith and trust in God to deliver on his promise to be with us each day in the Holy Spirit and then take responsibility for our part of the relationship by making our relationship with God a priority. In practical terms, this manifests itself in our daily Christian disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. As we do so, we need to have tools available to help us in our study of Scripture, tools like a good study bible that will allow the Holy Spirit to help increase our understanding, or a Prayer Book to help us pray when we cannot or do not know how. 

We then must test the truth of the claim by taking the time to reflect on our relationship with God and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. This won’t happen if we do not take sufficient time each day to read, pray, and reflect, both by ourselves and with other Christians. Are you giving sufficient time each day to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you? Most of the great devotional masters agree that we need to spend at least an hour a day in prayer and Bible reading. How much time are you giving? The answer you give will tell you a lot about where your priorities in life are.

Second, like Paul, if we are to cultivate the Spirit’s presence in our lives, we must put to death those things in us that prevent us from surrendering ourselves to God and which grieve his Spirit. Paul talks about this constantly in his letters and the traditional term for this is mortification, which simply means putting to death those things in us that prevent us from surrendering ourselves completely to God. For example, in Galatians 2:20 Paul talks about being crucified with Christ and later in Galatians 5:22ff he talks about the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Immediately afterward, however, Paul talks about those belonging to Christ having crucified the flesh, i.e., putting to death those things in ourselves that will allow the Holy Spirit to help us grow in our faith and relationship with God. For the Holy Spirit to work in us and help us in our faith journey, we need to learn to put to death our own sinful and selfish desires so that we can be more open to the will of the Spirit and begin to bear his fruit. Learning to die to ourselves is VERY difficult, however, and we cannot possibly hope to do so on our own. Yet it is precisely in our struggles to die to ourselves that we can and must have confidence that the Spirit will help us to do so. As I talked about two weeks ago, doing so allows God to prove his trustworthiness. God does not promise us an easy time in our spiritual growth; he does, however, promise us power to overcome our fallen nature through the presence of the Holy Spirit if we do our part. What in you is preventing you from deepening your relationship with God? Ask God in the Holy Spirit to help you put to death whatever that is and expect him to answer you. Start by looking for the fruit of the Spirit Paul described in Galatians 5:22ff.

Last, we need to learn to develop an eternal perspective on life, the kind that Paul had. This will help us prioritize things in life and deal with its hurts, heartaches, and darkest moments. If we see life as having a relationship with God rather than as a biological existence, it will help us deal with the brokenness of our own lives as well as in the lives of our loved ones because we can better understand that pain and suffering is temporary, hard as it is for us to bear, and that the death of our mortal bodies does not bring an end to life. God has promised us that those who live in him now will live with him forever, and has made it possible for us to have this life-giving and sustaining relationship with him through his death, resurrection, and daily presence of his Holy Spirit.

I would like to close by giving you an update on how I am dealing with my mother’s illness, which I hope will illustrate what I have been talking about [personal testimony about Daily Office, prayer, and struggles].

What about you? What kind of soil do you want to cultivate? Do you want to focus your time and energy on things that are immediate, transitory, and lead to death, or do you want to focus on things that are permanent, eternal, and life-giving?  If you pick the latter, the Holy Spirit will be with you each day and help sustain you in your journey. He will be with you in good times but especially in the bad times and help you cultivate a relationship with him that will last forever; but you will have to focus your time and energy on doing the things that will cultivate his presence. How do we know this? Because he has promised us in his Word, he has taken on our flesh to make the promise possible, and lives with each one of us who believes, ready and willing to help us deepen our relationship with God. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

We sat down to table and the officer began his story: “I have served in the army ever since I was quite young. I knew my duties and was a favorite of my superiors as a conscientious officer. But I was young, as were also my friends, and unhappily I started drinking. It went from bad to worse until drinking became an illness. When I did not drink, I was a good officer, but when I would start drinking, then I would have to go to bed for six weeks. My superiors were patient with me for a long time, but finally, for rudeness to the commanding officer while I was drunk, they reduced my rank to private and transferred me to a garrison for three years. They threatened me with more severe punishment if I would not improve and give up drinking. In this unfortunate condition all my efforts at self-control were of no avail and I could not stay sober for any length of time. Then I heard that I was to be sent to the guardhouse and I was beside myself with anguish.

“One day I was sitting in the barracks deep in thought. A monk came in to beg alms for the church. Those who had money gave what they could. When he approached me he asked, ‘Why are you so downcast?’ We started talking and I told him the cause of my grief. The monk sympathized with my situation and said, ‘My brother was once in a similar position, and I will tell you how he was cured. His spiritual father gave him a copy of the Gospels and strongly urged him to read a chapter whenever he wanted to take a drink. If the desire for a drink did not leave him after he read one chapter he was encouraged to read another and if necessary still another. My brother followed this advice, and after some time he lost all desire for alcoholic beverages. It is now fifteen years since he has touched a drop of alcohol. Why don’t you do the same, and you will discover how beneficial the reading of the Gospels can be. I have a copy at home and will gladly bring it to you.’

“I wasn’t very open to this idea so I objected, ‘How can your Gospels help when neither my efforts at selfcontrol nor medical aid could keep me sober?’ I spoke in this way because I never read the Gospels.

“‘Give it a chance,’ continued the monk reassuringly, ‘and you will find it very helpful.’

“The next day he brought me this copy of the Gospels. I opened it, browsed through it, and said, ‘I will not take it, for I cannot understand it; I am not accustomed to reading Church Slavonic.’

“The monk did not give up but continued to encourage me and explained that God’s special power is present in the Gospel through his words. He went on, ‘At the beginning be concerned only with reading it diligently; understanding will come later. One holy man says that “even when you don’t understand the word of God, the demons do, and they tremble”; and the passion for drink is without a doubt their work. And St. John Chrysostom in speaking about the power of the word of God says that the very room where the Gospel is kept has the power to ward off the spirits of darkness and thwart their intrigues.’

“I do not recall what I gave the monk when I took the copy of the Gospels from him, but I placed the book in my trunk with my other belongings and forgot about it. Some time later a strong desire to have a drink took hold of me and I opened the trunk to get some money and run to the tavern. But I saw the copy of the Gospels before I got to the money and I remembered clearly what the monk had told me. I opened the book and read the first chapter of Matthew without understanding anything. Again I remembered the monk’s words, ‘At the beginning be concerned only with reading it diligently; understanding will come later.’ So I read another chapter and found it a bit more comprehensible. Shortly after I began reading the third chapter, the curfew bell rang and it was no longer possible for me to leave the barracks.

“In the morning my first thought was to get a drink, but then I decided to read another chapter to see what would happen. I read it and did not go. Again I wanted a drink, but I started reading and I felt better. This gave me courage, and with every temptation for a drink I began reading a chapter from the Gospels. The more I read, the easier it became, and when I finally finished reading all four Gospels the compulsion for drink had disappeared completely; I was repelled by the very thought of it. It is now twenty years since I stopped drinking alcoholic beverages.

“Everyone was surprised at the change that took place in me, and after three years I was reinstated as an officer and then climbed up the ranks until I was made a commanding officer. Later I married a fine woman; we have saved some money, which we now share with the poor. Now I have a grown son who is a fine lad and he also is an officer in the army.”

—From The Way of a Pilgrim

Years ago when I first read this piece, it made a deep and lasting impression on me. Because of its power as a story, I will generally refrain from commenting on it because it speaks for itself. I would simply point out two things: (1) the sin does not have to be alcohol abuse, it can be any kind of fleshly or spiritual sin; and (2) the story does NOT negate the transformative power of Christ working through his Body, the Church. There is no such thing as an isolate Christian and we are called to love each other and hold each other accountable in our lives.

What about you? Do you believe the Gospel has the power to transform you? Have you experienced the transforming power of the Gospel? Share your stories so that we might watch over each other in love.

Sermon delivered Sunday, June 29, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42; Psalm 13.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What’s the Human Condition?

In today’s OT lesson we are confronted with the uncomfortable fact that sometimes our faith and character get tested and we generally don’t like that, do we, especially when it is God who is testing (not tempting) us. In the Genesis account, God ostensibly demands the life of Abraham’s beloved son, Isaac, but because we know how the story ends and the writer lets us in on the purpose of God’s request at the beginning of the story, it is easy for us to miss its important lessons because we read it with 20-20 hindsight. Yet stop for a moment and try to put yourself into Abraham’s shoes (or sandals) as the story unfolds. You are happily living out your life and enjoying fellowship with this God who has called you out to be the father of many nations, who has delivered to you and your wife a miracle baby, and has promised to make your descendants more numerous than the stars (Gen. 15:5). Then one day disaster strikes. This God who has made all these promises to you suddenly demands the life of your only beloved son, the very son whom God had promised and delivered to you when you were over 100 and your wife was in her 90s and well past her childbearing years.

The writer does not tell us how Abraham felt or what he thought when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, but it is not hard for us to imagine because we have all been confronted with moments like this. Being human, Abraham must have felt initially shock and disbelief. Perhaps later he felt fear and anger or maybe Abraham wondered what he had done to deserve this punishment. Despite being known later as the Father of all who have faith (Romans 4:16), Abraham might have remembered that both he and his wife, Sarah, had initially laughed at God’s promise to give them a son in their advanced age (Genesis 17:17; 18:12). He might have remembered further that they had both become impatient with God to deliver on his promise and had taken matters into their own hands when he fathered Ishmael through Sarah’s slave girl, Hagar. So now maybe the chickens were coming home to roost and God was going to punish him for doubting (but not disbelieving) his promises. No, it is not hard for us to imagine Abraham might have had some of these thoughts and fears because they are the very same thoughts and fears we have when disaster strikes in our lives. We also hear these sentiments echoed in the first half of today’s psalm.

Even if we do not know for sure what Abraham thought, we do know what he did, and what he did ultimately required him to have faith and trust in God. The Genesis writer tells us that Abraham immediately obeyed God’s command because he got up early in the morning and set out with two of his servants and Isaac to go to the place God told him to go. He didn’t delay or stall or protest to God; he acted. Note carefully what he told his servants once they arrived: “Stay here and we will come back to you.” Now it is entirely possible that Abraham was just trying to trick his servants so as not to tip his hand regarding what he was going to do. But we get a further insight into Abraham’s faith which seems to indicate Abraham was not trying to deceive to his servants when Isaac asked him where was the lamb to be used for the burnt offering. Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb for the offering. He did not say, “You are going to be the sacrificial lamb, son. Sorry about your bad luck, kid; I’m just obeying orders.” No, he told Isaac that God would provide. Abraham then bound Isaac and prepared to kill him. He must have been very close to doing so because the angel of the Lord urgently called his name twice to stop him. Despite whatever feelings and misgivings Abraham had, in the end he did what God had asked him to do, even if it meant losing the most precious thing in his life. Abraham had passed the test. However, what is more important from our perspective, so had God.

Where’s God’s Grace?

But why did God test Abraham in the first place? After all, if God is all knowing, surely he knew if Abraham had faith and trusted in him. The answer, in part, lies in what Abraham did. Despite his fears and misgivings—and because he was human he surely had them—Abraham trusted God and obeyed him, and in doing so allowed God to prove himself to be trustworthy. The issue is not whether God knew if Abraham had faith in him and trusted him but rather did Abraham really know if God was trustworthy? In other words, the test was really for Abraham’s benefit, not God’s. Abraham had to experience for himself that God was trustworthy and it is only in dire situations that trustworthiness can be truly verified.

I was talking to a friend the other day about his Vietnam war experience. He talked about being battle tested, which enabled him to learn what he was made of. He certainly did not like being shot at or having to endure the extremes of combat, but in so enduring, he learned what he was made of. Likewise, in our own suffering, it is only when we trust in the Lord to help us will we discover that he can be trusted. It is not fun but God can use our dark times to help us grow in our relationship with him.

How? Because trust is one of the essential components of any relationship and is based on intimacy. Therefore it is important for us to know God is trustworthy if we are ever going to have a real relationship with him. It is easy for us to trust in God when things are going well for us, isn’t it, and trust really isn’t earned during good times. In fact, when we enjoy God’s abundant blessings, we tend to get fat and sassy and forget that he is the source of all good things because we are fallen and rebellious creatures. It is exactly in those times that our relationship with God can suffer the most because we start to delude ourselves that we really do not need him to lead a happy and healthy life. No, unfortunately it is not until disaster strikes that we can really see if God is worthy of our trust because only then does God have a real opportunity to prove his trustworthiness which in turn can lead us to a more intimate relationship with him.

I have been reading the book of Numbers in the Daily Office recently and this lack of trust was the essential problem behind Israel’s sin. God had led them out of Egypt and provided them a mighty victory over Pharaoh (the good times). But now as they faced hardship in the desert, the people grew impatient with God and began to grumble against him and his servant Moses. In other words, when things got really tough, they failed to remember God’s mighty acts in their lives and as a result they did not trust God to fulfill his promises to them. Instead, they wanted to take matters into their own hands. As a result, God condemned that generation to wander in the desert for forty years until they had all died. God did fulfill his promise to his people, but not to the generation that failed to believe God’s promise and disobeyed him.

By contrast, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the very personification of God’s promise to him, Abraham trusted God and obeyed. As we’ve seen this does not mean that this was easy for Abraham to do. But the point is that by not losing faith in God and obeying him, Abraham was able to see that God was trustworthy. In Abraham’s darkest hour, God proved himself trustworthy.

We see the same dynamic in the Apostle Paul’s life. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells a remarkable story about being afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh” and pleading with Jesus three times to end his suffering (2 Corinthians 12:8ff). The Greek word for pleading is “parakaleo,” which means to beg, and so we can conclude that Paul’s suffering was great indeed. Yet in the face of Paul’s terrible suffering, what was Jesus’ response? “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul then went on to make this remarkable statement: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in hardships, in persecution, and in difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). Like Abraham, Paul had to struggle with his suffering and trust in the Lord to help him endure. And like Abraham, Paul learned that in his suffering he could count on the Lord to be trustworthy and good to his word. Be careful to note that Jesus did not grant Paul’s request to remove his suffering; instead, he promised Paul the power to deal with his suffering and in so doing, develop a more intimate relationship with the Source and Author of all life. Neither Abraham or Paul found it easy to deal with their dark times but because they trusted God to help them through their struggles, both found that God can be trusted because in their obedience to him, he earned their trust and in the process of earning his trust, their relationship with God deepened and became much more intimate. And if we think about it, this dynamic makes sense because after all, aren’t the things we value most in life the things for which we have to work the hardest to earn?

Where’s the Application?

Likewise, in our own experience as a congregation, we have seen that God can be trusted to help us through our suffering and dark times. Think back to last December. Those were dark days for our congregation. Fr. Ron had been inhibited and we were looking at having to find a new place to worship. Who among us could have imagined this glorious outcome? But it was precisely during those dark times that we had an opportunity to trust God to deliver us and he did—in spades! This knowledge of God’s trustworthiness will also help us in our mission work. God has planted us here in a fertile mission field and woe be to us if we do not go fishing. How much greater our ability to speak of what God has done for us because we had the faith to trust him during the darkest hours of our congregation’s history?

On a more personal level, I can remember the dark days of last spring and summer when it looked like my call to the priesthood would never be realized and I confess that I was sorely tempted to quit. But ultimately I did not; instead I chose to trust in God to fulfill his call to me to become a priest. And when I was ordained, those dark days made my ordination that much sweeter!

So what can we learn from all this? First, trust has to be earned and requires intimacy. As Christians, we need to be reading our Bibles each day and praying. When we do so we can gain a more intimate knowledge of God’s character, his promises, and his mighty deeds and acts. It helps us to remember Whose we are, who God is, and what he wants us to do to walk with him faithfully. Faith always seeks understanding and the daily disciplines of prayer and Bible reading are a good place to start. If we do not know how and why God is trustworthy, we will not likely be able to trust him as we must if we desire to have a real relationship with him.

Second, Scripture constantly exhorts us to remember God and his mighty acts. Abraham likely did that when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Paul reminds us in Romans 4 that Abraham put his trust in the God who gives life to the dead and calls thing into existence that are not (Romans 4:17). On his way to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham surely remembered God’s mighty act in blessing an old, barren couple with a son, just as he promised he would do. Remembering God’s mighty acts and past trustworthiness helps us trust him in present times when we don’t have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight.

Last, we need to get into small groups so that we can forge intimate relationships with our fellow Christians. Doing so allows God to use human agency to minister to us during our dark hours and this helps prevent Satan from picking us off one by one when he exploits our broken and fallen natures in the midst of our suffering and darkest hours.

I would like to close by sharing with you how I am trying to practice what I’ve just preached. I share this story because I do not know how it is going to turn out—and it could turn out to be very, very bad—which I hope will make it that much more relevant for you [testimony about my struggles with mom’s illness].

What about you? When disaster strikes or suffering occurs in your life, which it inevitably will, in part because we live in a broken and fallen world, will you seek to learn and obey God’s will for you? Will you trust him enough to allow his grace to work in you to allow you to do what you consider to be impossible? Trusting God in our darkest hours will not guarantee us a “happy outcome.” What it will do is allow us to see that if we trust God during our darkest times, he will enable us to persevere and grow in our relationship with him. It will enable us to see that we are not alone in our struggles nor do we have to come up with our own solutions. The Christian faith is no self-help solution and that is why God reminds us to fear not because he is with us in any and every situation, especially those that are darkest. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17.

What’s the Human Condition?

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today’s gospel lesson, Luke paints for us one of the most poignant scenes in all the Bible. Two followers of Jesus, Cleopas and his companion, are walking along the road to Emmaus and they are despondent. The most wonderful person they had ever known and in whom they had put their hopes and dreams had been crucified as a common criminal. He was indisputably dead and buried and now they felt quite alone. Not only were they grieving Jesus’ death, they were dealing with their own violated expectations. Instead of redeeming Israel in the way they expected—probably hoping he was going to free Israel from its bondage to Rome—Jesus had gotten himself crucified and they were devastated.

While they were sharing their hurt and brokenness with each other, Jesus “came near and went with them” but they did not recognize him. The verb Luke uses for recognize is “epiginoœskoœœ,” which means more than to just recognize someone by his or her physical appearance. Epiginoœskoœœ means to know something or someone fully, or to understand, the kind of knowledge that results from a deep and intimate relationship with someone. Luke does not tell us how they were prevented from recognizing Jesus but it does not stretch our imagination to believe that one of the reasons was because they were so self-absorbed in their own hurt and problems.

Jesus quickly got them to talk about what was on their hearts and minds and then Luke tells us just how fully the two misunderstood Jesus and the recent events surrounding him. Their faces downcast, the disciples told Jesus of their shattered hopes and dreams about him being a prophet and redeemer of Israel. That the two called Jesus a prophet is significant because in the biblical context a prophet was one who “speaks for God and interprets his will for [humankind]” (Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, p. 221). This, of course, would have given anyone thought to be a prophet immense authority because he or she was speaking for God and could therefore be trusted to tell the truth. The prophet’s words would surely be believable but apparently Cleopas and his companion did not quite understand so that they could believe.

Then the two told Jesus an even more amazing story about an empty tomb and Jesus being alive that they had heard earlier in the day from women who had visited Jesus’ tomb. The verb Luke uses for amazed means literally to be driven out of one’s senses and we don’t have to try very hard to understand how a story like this, if really taken seriously, would drive us out of our senses. After all, how many people have we seen raised from the dead?

In telling the story up to this point, then, Luke hits a resonant note with us, doesn’t he? If we have lived long enough, we know all too well about shattered hopes and dreams and how they can make us and our eyes look downcast so that we feel quite alone in the world. Whatever the cause—a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, financial hardship, illness or unanswered prayer—we can relate all too well to Cleopas and his companion when they said, “We had hoped…but now…”

Where’s God’s Grace?

Yet it is to the glory of the God who loves us and gave himself for us that this is not the end of the story. God did not leave Cleopas and his companion as they were nor does he leave us the way we are. What did Jesus do to help his two despondent disciples? Luke tells us that Jesus admonished the two for being slow to understand and believe. But notice that even though Jesus admonished the two, he stayed with them and helped them understand so that later they recalled their hearts burned within them as he opened the scriptures to them. Luke seems to be reminding us here that Jesus is present in believers’ lives regardless of whether we are aware of that presence or even understand fully how he manifests himself to us. Jesus is with us when our hearts are on fire because we recognize his presence and even when we are feeling defeated and quite alone in the world.

Jesus then interpreted the scriptures for them so that they would finally understand that he was called to be a suffering Messiah. In other words, Jesus seemed to be saying to them (and us) that if we are going to make him the basis of our hope (and we should), then we must know what that basis is (the cross). He further reminds them (and us) that scripture is the most important way to help us understand Jesus as the basis of our hope and that if we are to really understand scripture, we must submit ourselves to its authority. Why? Because as Peter reminds us in today’s epistle lesson, the word of God is enduring and living; it has the power to give us life because it comes from God, the Source and Author of all life. We must not try to put scripture under our authority and make it say what we want it to say because we do not have life in us; and when we do, then we are attempting to put death over life and can never come to learn and recognize Jesus in our midst.

Last, it is noteworthy that Cleopas and his companion did not recognize Jesus until they were enjoying fellowship with him at table. This echoes Jesus’ promise in Matthew that where two or three are gathered in his name, there he will be in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20) and here we see a gospel writer joining others in the NT in emphasizing the importance of table fellowship in knowing Jesus. It is from this passage, in part, that we Anglicans find the basis for our glorious way of worship each Sunday in Word and Sacrament.

Where’s the Application?

So what application does the Emmaus story have for us today? First, if we are to take seriously Paul’s admonition to grow to the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), i.e., to be like Christ, then we must learn what is the mind and will of Christ so that we will better recognize him in our midst. In the process of becoming like Christ, our job is not to ask, “What would Jesus do?” but rather to ask, “What would Jesus have us do?” To learn the mind of Christ so that we can become like him, we must do what Jesus did for Cleopas and his companion—search and correctly interpret the scriptures—because he understood scripture to be the living and breathing word of God. Consequently, we need to read the Bible regularly because it is God’s word to us and it is essential for our Christian maturity. Simply put, it will help us better understand the mind of Christ so that we can be more like him and this understanding will help us better recognize his presence in our lives. We have seen in today’s gospel lesson that Jesus thought so and we have also seen in today’s epistle lesson that Peter believed God’s word to be living and enduring, able to produce the results God wants.

This leads us to our second lesson from the Emmaus story. If we are to read scripture regularly we must humble ourselves and expect God to speak to and work in us when we do. This was the mistake of Cleopas and his companion. They apparently tried to make scripture say what they wanted it to say rather than expecting to be transformed by reading it. Otherwise, why would Jesus have scolded them for being slow to believe what the prophets had declared about himself? In essence Jesus said to them, “Why are your eyes downcast in the midst of this joyous occasion? If you knew what the prophets said, those who spoke and interpreted God’s word, then you would have known this was going to happen and you would have expected my death and resurrection and would not now be sad,” i.e., “you would have joy even in the midst of your own personal sense of loss!”

We see this dynamic echoed in today’s NT lesson. Peter urged the Israelites to repent and be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit could help them do the things they needed to do to be saved from the corrupt generation in which they lived. These three voices in today’s lessons represent the consistent Voice we hear in the Bible: we cannot save ourselves; we are only saved by God’s grace and enduring presence in us by the power of his Word and Holy Spirit. Christianity is not a self-help religion; it is a God-empowered religion. Thanks be to God!

When you read God’s word, do you read it with a sense of anticipation that the Holy Spirit living in you is using it to help transform you into being like Christ each day and help you better recognize him in your midst? Or are you more like Cleopas and his companion, walking down the road of your life with your face and eyes downcast so that you cannot recognize the Risen Lord walking with you because you do not know who or what to look for? Early last week I was helped to understand this truth when Jesus enlightened me [personal testimony on calling Ron, my prep for Paul, and my reading of Wesley, mindset and mind set]. When you read scripture with the expectation that you will grow in your understanding of Jesus and his will for you, your hearts will burn within you because he will give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:4).

Finally, the Emmaus story reminds us about the importance of being real in the midst of Christian fellowship. While they were on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his companion at least had the wherewithal, or perhaps the grace, to talk about their hurts and fears with each other; they didn’t try to tough it out on their own or pretend like nothing was wrong. They were also real enough to share their shattered hopes and dreams with a perfect stranger, and humble enough to listen to someone whom they instinctively knew had the authority and power to help them. Doing so allowed Jesus to help them gain a fuller understanding of scripture and himself so that their hearts burned within them.

What about you? Do you need help in reading the Bible daily or perhaps interpreting it so that you understand it better and be transformed by it? If you do, then the Emmaus story reminds us of the importance of joining a small group for purposeful Bible study and regular Christian fellowship. While it is true that God works in us through the Holy Spirit to help us gain a fuller understanding of his word and purposes for us, it is also true that God uses other humans to accomplish the same, just as Jesus helped the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. If you are having trouble in establishing good disciplinary habits like daily Bible reading, join a disciple group and ask its members to help you. If you are having difficulty interpreting scripture, ask a mature Christian friend or someone you trust in your group, or one of your pastors for some suggestions about a good Bible study or commentary, depending where you are in your journey. The more you are willing to access people and resources to help you in your daily Bible reading, the better you will understand. And the better you understand, the easier it will be for you to recognize the Risen Christ in your daily life. I do not know exactly how this all works but I know it does work because it is my testimony and the testimony of millions of Christians over time and across culture that it does.

Are you content to walk through life with your face and eyes downcast or do you want to have your hearts burn within you because you know that the Lord is risen and really present with you? The choice is yours. He stands ready to help you wherever you are in your journey. How do we know this? Because he has spoken to us through the law, the prophets, through scripture, and most importantly, he has taken on our flesh and given us this promise directly through Jesus, the Word. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.