Good News

Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.  Psalm 96:2

This advice from the Psalmist is hard to hear while 2020 is still ringing in our ears.  After all, how do you say Good News when people are being carted off to the hospital and the morgue is so full there’s a waiting list?  On top of that the November election results are, according to whichever extreme point of view you choose,

a.     A fraudulent stealing of the presidency

b.     Under attack by unscrupulous liars

Now, before your eyes glaze over with O man, I can’t stand to hear one more bad thing about Coronavirus or the election mess…this verse has much more Hallelujah than Hell for us today.  The last two words the Psalmist offers should give us a hint:  he saves!

So, what does that have to do with the mess that characterized 2020, and seems to offer little hope for 2021?  Where’s the good news?  If He saves, to what are we being saved?  The short answer is, we are being saved from ourselves, our selfishness, and (to call a spade a spade), we’re being saved from our sin, and being saved to His presence, where there is safety, peace, and joy forevermore. 

Now, short answers are always, by nature, somewhat simplistic, or surface, and we need to dig a little deeper.  So here’s a thesis-bone for us to pick on this morning, about the kind of mess this world is in:

2020 was/is a test

…and that’s Good News

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

Jesus warned his disciples that in this world we’d always have trouble, even if we stick closer to him than a shadow.  Jesus probably gave that an eyeroll when He said it, because, sometimes, we have trouble because we are following Jesus. 

But here’s the good news about being that kind of follower who gets clobbered by COVID19, elections that seem to be controlled by Darth Vader, a jealous co-worker who lies to the boss about you, or a bully who picks on you for being a Christian.  Jesus knew it would be that way, and He’s already made a pathway for the Good News to travel your way:

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.  John 16:33

So, knowing we are always being tested in one way or another, we have a strong hope in which to face 2021.  And, that being settled, we should let our endurance, our patience, grow in any opportunity for great joy. 

The question for the follower of Jesus isn’t what’s happening, and why do I have to suffer like Job; it’s more a matter figuring-out of how I can recognize tribulation, or testing, and live so my walk with Christ will bear fruit!

And isn’t it grand that we have that question before the house this morning?  Because my very good friend, Apostle Peter has more than political talking points for that; he has a few life-handles for us to grab-on and grow in our patience.

Here are three of the handles:

Life Handle #1 in troubled times - Humility

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  1 Peter 5:6-7

If there is one person who knew something about learning humility it was Peter.  You remember him; he was always the one speaking-up, messing-up, and giving Jesus a case of indigestion.  Peter eventually learned humility when he stood before Jesus after the resurrection and found out he was forgiven.

The reality about this in troubled days like we’ve seen recently is that the power of God is ready to go to work on what ails us in our homes, businesses, schools, and government…if we’ll just get down on our knees.  Remember the formula:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

Life Handle #2 in troubled times – Spiritual Warfare

Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.  1 Peter 5:8-9a

Spiritual warfare is a matter of trust and worship.  I know people who worship fishing; everything else comes second.  The same can be said for many other things, but when anything comes before God, a follower of Jesus Christ is not really a follower or disciple, he’s merely a fan.  He likes Jesus, but not enough to worship Him.  And that sets us up for that prowling evil one who’s looking for a Christian dinner. 

If you’re going to be ready for spiritual warfare in troubled times, your prayer life, study of Scripture, worship patterns, and sacrificial love of people will have to look more like first century, not twenty-first.

Life Handle #3 in troubled times – Family Strength

Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.  1 Peter 5:9b

This last life handle is connection with God’s people…particularly the ones in your own home, and church, and community – but also the church around the world.  The church is taking a huge hit in the organizational sense…buildings are closed, programs are on-hold, and the budgets are getting tighter.  But the worship and witness of the true church is unaffected. 

Here are two principles about that:

·       You can take the believers out of the buildings – they won’t miss a beat worshipping and serving the King of Kings

·       If you take make believe believers, pretenders out of their buildings and programs, you’ve taken away the only Jesus they know.

Anyone who knows me knows I love words.  I love reading and learning ways to communicate, so I can do a better job of sharing God’s Word.  I even belong to several websites devoted to helping your vocabulary.  I get a new word every day.  One day this past week I got a new word that (I’m certain) most of you have never encountered.  It is a slang expression heard mostly in Great Britain.  Are you ready for this?  The word is coddiwomple.  It’s so alien to the U.S. brand of English my spell checker didn’t recognize it.  It means to travel purposefully toward an as-yet unknown destination.

This is exactly what Paul wrote to the Hebrew believers about serving without seeing first:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

An example of this word would be the meaning of faith.  It was by coddiwomple Abraham obeyed God.  God told Abraham to go offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  What did Abraham do…he coddiwompled…loaded the backpack with firewood, a sacrifice knife, and headed out for Mt. Moriah!  It wasn’t an easy time of it, but his faithful moving towards the mountain (coddiwompling) meant the power of God was carrying him through.

Peter’s life-handles for troubling times, humility, staying on alert in spiritual warfare, and counting on the family of God…these are the ways you do what the Psalmist said, to sing to the Lord, praise His name, and proclaim the Good News each day, building your endurance and experience the assuring peace and joy of God’s presence each day.

Listen to what Peter said would come of all that:

In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.  So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.  All power to him forever! Amen.  1 Peter 5:10-11

Beloved, while COVID and the Political and economic crises are cleaning everyone’s clock in the U.S. and around the world, believers who have learned to coddiwomple to God’s will are excited and looking forward to His next chapter.  For us, that is Good News!  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Our Prayer

Father, help us to never lose sight of the direction to which you’ve said we’re marching…all the way to Zion, that city on a splendid hill, where there is a temple made without hands, and the doors are open and unguarded, and the light of your welcoming glory are always on!

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

Watch Sermon Video
 

Beauty for Ashes

 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.    He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.  To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.  In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.   Isaiah 61:1-3

If there was a poster child for the year 2020 it would have to look somber, depressed, hopeless, cynical, frustrated, broken, homeless, jobless, penniless, and wearing a mask to cover it all.

The first century was much like our year in 2020.  It was a dark place which held little righteousness; evil seemed to rule the day.  The whole idea of goodness and a life of joy seemed to be on lockdown.  The restaurants of hope and joy had the doors locked and windows barred.  And it seemed to grow darker by the moment.  And then, to Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men, and even Herod the Great, the heralds of Heaven, bathed in thunder, and clouds of light announce:  Good News! 

Isaiah predicted it seven centuries before Jesus was born.  Then, when Jesus stood in the synagogue[1] reading that same prophecy of Isaiah, He concluded his reading, not with, the word of God for us the people of God; rather He said, He who stands before you right now, is the fulfillment of every bit of Good News you could have hoped for – I Am is here.

What Isaiah predicted Jesus offered to the small group gathered at the synagogue in Nazareth.  The kind of Good News Jesus held forth would be like a miraculous cure for all diseases, including COVID-19 and old-age.  It would be complete pardon for every prisoner.  It would be recompense for every loss, sorrow, or fear.  This Good News is release, freedom, life, and abundance of joy.  It is blessing, rather than mourning, and praise instead of despair.  It was Good News because it was God’s promise of a crown of beauty given in exchange for the ashes of our grieving.

He seems to be looking in different directions at the same time, both forward to the coming new year, and backward to peruse the events of the year just past.  Those who are more cynically-minded perceive Janus as
In just a few days we will turn another corner.  Some will want to trash their 2020 calendar; some might want to blow it up with a stick of dynamite.  I think I will treasure mine.  I say this because I want to be a little like Janus, the mythical god for which January is named.  Janus has two faces, one looking East, the other West.  

He seems to be looking in different directions at the same time, both forward to the coming new year, and backward to peruse the events of the year just past.  Those who are more cynically-minded perceive Janus as two-faced, unable to truly speak his mind, only offering mixed messages.  Those who would see this in a more positive sense would see the backward-look as learning the lessons of the previous year, while looking forward is a better hope for next year.  Lessons learned, and wisdom applied for life.  I will choose that for my memory of this year’s legacy.

And that may be the whole issue for the spirit of heaviness in which 2020 has been bathed; how will we see it, and how will we choose to remember what to do with it?  Is there anything positive that we will take from this year’s hard lessons?  Well, apart from pop-psychology hackneyed phrases, the truth of one such cliché does come to mind:

It is always darkest before dawn

I have no idea where that saying comes from, but I know (on a first-name basis) some people who could testify to the truth of its message.  It’s a long list, but let’s just share several:

Adam…must have experienced a deep valley of depression and questioning the 2020 kind of darkness when he and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.  He’d never really been on his own before, and now the produce came from the ground only by the sweat of his brow[2].  Adam’s darkness revealed life can be tough!

Noah…spent the better part of a year in a dark, smelly boat, cooped-up with fifteen thousand animals that made the ark smelly.  Genesis ^{(Ch 8,9)} tells us that after it was over Noah stepped out into a world without people.  He and his little family were totally alone.  That’s a good simile for living in the quarantine of 2020 darkness.

Abraham  …had several periods darkness.  God had promised an heir.  But Abraham kept getting older and older.  He was approaching 100, and his wife was no spring chicken either.  What was God up to?  You don’t have children when you’re in the old folk’s home!  Didn’t God know there are no nursery websites to help with giving Senior Adult baby showers?  And then, when Isaac was finally born, God told Abraham to take the boy to the mountain and kill him for a sacrifice.  Talk about darkness!  (you usually don’t think about sacrificing kids until they’re teenagers!)

Jonah…was disobedient about fulfilling his prophetic ministry role.  He got a holy submarine ride and several days in the darkness to think about his vows.

Israel…^{(Joshua 7)} the whole nation kicked back in shock after being whipped at Ai. They didn’t know Achan had sinned.  They only knew they were out in the dark.

Moses…was no stranger to the darkness syndrome.  After being raised in a king’s castle he spent forty years as a convicted murderer, working for his father-in-law, tending sheep on the back-side of the darkness of nowhere^{(Exodus 2)}.

David…^{(1 Sam 22)} the boy-king slept in the caves of Adullam while King Saul hunted for him.  He had spent his life trying to serve God and king…now the king wanted him dead, and God seemed nowhere in sight; it was all darkness.

Solomon…spent a lifetime searching for ways to get past the darkness of a life of affluence.  He couldn’t do it.  In frustration he recorded Ecclesiastes, the definitive key to how to live a frustrated life in the darkness of materialism.

Elijah…had his darkest moments after defeating the false prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.  He was outnumbered 850 to 1, and God gave him the victory over the wild bunch.  It was one of the greatest spiritual victories of his career as a prophet.  The next instant we find him sitting under juniper tree pondering suicide ^{(1 Kgs 19)}. 

John the Baptist…found himself in a dark pit too; John 11 tells us he was wondering if he’d made a mistake in baptizing Jesus.  Was He really the Messiah?   He needed to know; John was living in the darkness of doubting his entire ministry.  

Judas…was a bad guy to us (who names his firstborn Judas these days?)  Nevertheless, Judas was chosen to come alongside Jesus with the other 11.  Judas had his toughest moments trying to understand Jesus’ motives.  As a zealot, waiting for the kingdom to be established, Judas must have been severely frustrated, proving that fighting God tooth-and-nail is the darkest of darkness.

The Disciples…(bless their little misguided hearts) spent seven long weeks in the upper room after the resurrection.  Jesus told them to wait, and then he disappeared in the clouds.  What a wonderful way to change the world, eh? 

Waiting – doesn’t that describe the darkness of 2020?

Peter… was the original action figure, always acting (especially before thinking). Toy makers of action biggies like G.I. Joe, Power-Rangers, and The Hulk, could make an Apostle Peter doll and market him to Christian parents.  The only problem is he’d have his foot in his mouth.  Matthew^Ch26 has Peter denying the Lord three times the night of Jesus’ arrest.  That had to have eaten-away at the walls of his stomach.  His darkness was from trying to figure out why it didn’t go like he thought it should.  His darkness was clothed in the question, why?  And every time he heard a rooster crowing it was like somebody locked on his midsection with a set of vice grips.

John Mark…left to go on the Great Adventure with Paul & Barnabas, an exciting mission trip to establish churches, and preach the gospel.  But John Mark chickened-out when the going got tough; he went home to Momma.  John Mark had a heart for God, and I am certain there were many times he awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, remembering his failure.  It would be many years before light came to put away that darkness and he would write his Gospel.

John…was the Apostle whom Jesus loved, and who leaned on Jesus’ side during the Last Supper.  He became the beloved Pastor at Ephesus.  He preached the Word with boldness and effectiveness.  At age ninety he got to retire, but not to a condo in Miami beach!  John was imprisoned, exiled to a rock quarry on an island off the coast of Greece.  He spent his golden years hauling lime rock for the emperor. 

Darkness hardly describes this agony!

            And then, there was the New Testament Jeremiah……

Paul…who, when converted, immediately began to experience opposition – from within the church.  He spent 14 years in the desert seminary learning about God’s plans for the church.  Then came times of severe darkness

·       He was beaten (as Jeremiah). 

·       He was called a traitor (as Jeremiah). 

·       He was imprisoned and died for the cause (as did Jeremiah). 

Paul’s life was spent on mission, filled with times of battling the darkness.

Now, I do not consider myself worthy of even being mentioned with the previous bunch.  However, all the guys in that previous bunch lived two thousand years ago, and I’m still breathing, standing here before you as an appendix to what I’ve been trying to say about this exchange of beauty for ashes.  I want to share with you that there is meaning in what all of us have been forced to focus on this past year; it is the exchange of 2020 darkness for God’s Heavenly Blessing!

I’m not Peter or Paul, but here’s my darkness:

I’m simply a pastor, having served 9 churches in the last 4 decades.  None of those churches were even remotely perfect; it’s a good thing, because each of those churches also had an imperfect pastor.  It’s like that in all of life.  Life is exceedingly NOT PERFECT…it is messy, fun, disorderly, exhilarating, and painful, and you hardly ever know what it’s going to be when you wake up in the morning.

It was that way twenty years ago when we moved to North Carolina from Florida.  We were called to serve a church in Thomasville (messy, fun, exhilarating, disorderly, and, at times, painful).  That ended 15 years ago shortly after Christmas. 

My season of darkness started shortly after because I was a pastor without a church.  If you’ve ever meet one of those creatures, be kind, because they’re treading dark waters.  (I could add, be careful…they may bite when disturbed).

Months into seeking God’s will for where (and if) I would ever serve again, the problem was evident and predictable; each time a place seemed to open-up, it closed faster than a slap in the face. 

I was living in the darkness of questioning, wondering if I’d ever pastor or preach again.  Russell felt like Jeremiah in the pit, and I wanted some answers.  I wanted some sense of purpose during what seemed like wasted time.  (Can we say 2020?)  Give me some rhyme and reason, Lord!

I must confess that may have been one of the darkest times of despair in my soul.  When a person has been assured time and again that the calling upon your life is to serve God, having no place to serve is like drinking sand when you’re dehydrated.  Now, I never got to Elijah’s pity party…never wanted to end it all…but the darkness did make me wonder if God was just ready to bring me home.

And then, a spiritual version of 6° of separation kicked in.  Elizabeth had a position as Administrative Assistant to Pastor Don Lloyd in High Point.  The D.S. was a frequent visitor to that church, and, six-months into my blackout of darkness, the dots began connecting.  God provided a place for me to serve…and here we are in the 16^th year of being a recovering Baptist-now-Methodist.

Helen Steiner Rice sometimes connects with what ails my soul in times of darkness:

And Oh!  What a blessing

To know there are reasons

And to find that our soul

Must, too, have its seasons.

"Bounteous Seasons"

And "Barren Ones," too.

Times for rejoicing

And times to be blue.

But meeting these seasons

Of dark desolation

With strength that is born

Of anticipation

That comes from knowing

That "autumn-time sadness"

Will surely be followed

by a "Springtime of Gladness."

Considering all the Biblical examples of the darkness-turned-light in the lives of David, Paul, John, and others, it would be difficult not to see how it is always darkest just before light.

And, so, to the point…what is there about the darkness of 2020 that suggests what the light of 2021 might be like?

Is it just that, in the darkness of so much COVID-19 sickness and death, injustice, hatred and fear, it can’t get any worse?  Is that the light?  I trust that’s not the case; hanging-on to shaky ground is not moving towards the light; it’s just another kind of darkness.

Is the light of 2021 that, in the darkness of evil, we might be compelled into the light of world-wide revival?  Could be!

Is it that, in the darkness of days like Noah, it might be time for the light of the coming of Jesus Christ’s return to finally set everything that was wrong…right?

None of us is prophet-enough to predict what will happen next; only God knows when Christ will come.  But, like understanding the fields white unto harvest, we can say this:  we are ready for a little light…and when it’s been so dark, that light God gives will be one beautiful exchange for the heaviness of our grief, a crown of beauty for a garment of ashes!

Let’s give Isaiah the last word to this moment:

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.  Isaiah 9:2

It’s been dark for far too long; are you ready for a great light?

Our Prayer

Father, God of Heaven’s Armies, we are a people walking in great darkness for far too long.  Come, shed light on our spirit of heaviness; grant us a garment of praise, exchange our ashes for your crown of beauty.

We wait upon you, O Lord,

If you tarry so that the darkness must prevail for a little longer, our lives are in your hands; may You fill up the darkness until the dawn breaks.

If it is that your light will begin to reveal renewal and revival, let our lives so shine that others may see.

If your holy Child, Jesus will return now, so the entire world may be clothed in your glory and splendor, and darkness be ever banished, then, with the Revelator, the Disciple you loved, we cast our petition, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

Watch Sermon Video

Head of Janus, Vatican Museum, Rome

---

[1] Luke 4:14-22

[2] Genesis 3