Second Sunday After Christmas 2010...Pastor Phil Strong

1-2-11

Text: Isaiah 64:1-12

Most of you here today have a faith that is much deeper than you imagined.

It’s not a faith that has allowed you to successfully eliminate confusing life-circumstances, but a faith that has caused you to conclude that refusing to believe in God is almost more difficult than processing the hurts and disappointments, many of which are directed toward him. The deeper your faith, the tougher your questions… the more complex the answers.

I have discovered the tension not to be unbelief, but a desire for authenticity (better belief).

It’s the kind of faith that’s unwilling to sit idly by and ignore the tension for fear of offending God. We expect more out of life; more out of God! (e.g. John the Baptist… “blessed are those who do not fall away on account of me” Matthew 11:6) are not offended by me…”

Literally, those who are not “scandalized” by me; ‘to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority; what displeases me’)

There is a paradox to the interlude: it requires both waiting and waiting for something else.

Waiting is what keeps you right here; right in the moment. It’s where are stopped long enough to become aware of all that’s been around us; all that we’ve overlooked, all that we’ve failed to appreciate because we were waiting for something else.

But, if we forget that we are waiting for something else, we will be led to assume that “this is all there is”.

Admittedly, pain makes it hard for me to be optimistic.

● Honestly, I have discovered that despair is far easier than hope and much less demanding. It doesn’t require me to remain expectant, therefore, I won’t have to worry about being ‘disappointed again’. It allows me to just “wallow” in my circumstances!

But, it reminds me that God is much more confident about the outcome of my circumstances, as well.

The Advent texts reminded me again this year that my dreams for life are not as big as God’s. My hopes are more “realistic”; more “manageable”.  

● I was reminded this week that all that I consider “painful” and all that I would identify as “adverse”, is really the experience of all that my heart longs for… all that I was created for. And, if I am to be content, I must realize that the path to contentment must run directly “through”, and not “around” the ache in my heart for the “not yet”--- what’s beyond the interlude.

            In order for my soul to find rest, I must rehearse the sovereignty of God.

Sovereignty is best understood not by God’s ability to prevent suffering, but his capacity to redeem it.

Sovereignty is what makes him even more amazing than we thought he was: everything doesn’t have to work out according to some cosmic blueprint; he can work with whatever he is given. God is the consummate artisan!

“I’m now available for questions”. It’s a time for questions.

When God asks, he is not necessarily searching for answers. He’s not requiring that we merely ‘state the obvious’ or attempt to justify our actions. It’s an appeal for personal deliberation.

Genesis 16… “Hagar, where have you come from, and, where are you going?

● I find that the first question is much easier to answer than the second.

“Anywhere but here!”, would typically be our response. Hagar is doing what any of us would do, isn’t she? She’s “takin’ the midnight train to anywhere!”

● Hagar declares, “I am running away (fleeing from her [Sarai] presence)…”

“presence” (Heb.)- ‘from the presence of the before’; ‘former times’.

● It’s easy to describe to where we’re coming from: we can offer that in vivid detail (e.g. personal discrepancies, failed marriage, loss of a job, unfulfilled expectations, fatal illness).

            But, it’s just too hard to say what’s next… where we go from here. We can declare that we have hopes for something better, but we have little clarity as to what that might look like.

Those places of escape/evasion often become the places of profound encounter.

            Interestingly, the something better, the something more hopeful had nothing to do with a change of scenery or a new job or a more compatible spouse. The angels instructions? “Go back… and submit to her authority”.

            “return” (Heb.)- ‘repent’ (re-think); ‘be restored’.

            “submit’ (Heb.)- ‘allow yourself to be humbled’; ‘be afflicted’; ‘dwell’; ‘receive an answer’; ‘sing’; ‘utter tunefully’.

● Let’s face it…submission is not our default mode while we wait: anxiety is. Anxiety is our response when we refuse to admit that we have lost control and we think that our situation is manageable without God.

“authority” (Heb.)- ‘space’; ‘time’; ‘entrust’.

How often do we find God in the circumstances when we were seemingly looking for something else?

Even the promise the angel made seemed somewhat paradoxical: “I’ll bless you with a child, but this kid’s gonna have issues!”

            “A sword will pierce your heart…”; “… someone will lead you where you don’t to go… this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God…” (Peter)

“When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee” (Matthew 4:12)--- one of the most unsettling of Jesus’ responses.

The lament is worship.

Worship is not what happens “after” we have lamented, but is part of the process by which we realize trust. You can’t really arrive at trust without having navigated the other conditions.

            Hagar named the place. She owned it. She embraced it as part of her story. She took solace in the fact that God was aware; that even though her vision was blocked by the circumstances, God could still see her (e.g. like kids standing behind a tiny tree).

All that we know is that we have entered a “new normal”.

                The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus (hair-a-clytus), said: “No man steps into the same river twice, for fresh waters are ever upon him.”

Life requires “adaptation”… but adaptation feels like we’ve succumb to our situation; like we’re surrendering.

When the circumstance is out of the reach of our comprehension, it stands to reason that we would need a peace that goes beyond understanding, as well (Philippians 4:7). 

I realize that I am often guilty of using prayer as a means of “regaining control” of my situation. That seems an odd prospect doesn’t it?

In adverse circumstances, there’s something more powerful than logic; more valuable than explanations… it’s companionship: God and others simply “with you”, not changing your circumstances, not offering answers, just bringing a quiet-center to your heart. And I can’t explain that.

            “For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, [this will preserve me]” (Philippians 1:19).

● All we know is that we would agree with Mother Teresa who once said, “When I see God, he’s got a lot of explaining to do!"

But, here’s my conviction; here’s my hope…

            There will never be a circumstance in my life, whether self-inflicted or unexplainable, which God cannot “reclaim” (restore) and use to accomplish something of greater value.

● It means that we’re not sure what God is up to, but we’re committed to sticking around to find out, and, when we do, what results is a hope that is a different sort of hope than what brought us to this scene. It’s hope that’s not confined to my own understanding or my own expectations of how God would and should act, but it is centered in the sovereignty of God: “… the God who sees me, … I have now seen the one who sees me.”