Sermon May 13, 2012
Matt. 12:9-21
Prayer:
We conclude today
our series, “Facing the Road Ahead.” This series is meant to engage the
congregation in discerning the future of Cross Lutheran. These are the first
steps of a journey of transition for Cross Lutheran and for you as participants
in discovering who you are as a faith community. Sometimes these transitions
can be difficult and uncertain. Nonetheless, it’s a journey you must take if
you are going to rediscover who and what the mission of Cross Lutheran is and
how you carry out its mission.
o
Over the
past weeks we’ve reflected on Never Giving up despite the challenges.
o
We’ve
reflected on Not Fearing the journey. That Jesus is walking with us, and that
God will provide.
o
Last
week we reflected on the importance of having a Clear Purpose.
Today… our
reflection will focus on “Look for Hope.”
Lillian Daniel wrote an E-Mail Devotional I
get… She writes in the weeks after the earthquake in Japan, more than 2,000
swept up on the shoreline in Miyagi. Exhausted rescue workers were shocked at
the horror of so much loss of life, but on that very same day, Time magazine
reported this incident:
"More accustomed to hearing the crunching of rubble and
the sloshing of mud than sounds of life, they dismissed the baby's cry as a
mistake. Until they heard it again, and again. They
made their way to a pile of debris and carefully removed fragments of wood and
slate, shattered glass and rock. And then they saw her: a 4-month-old baby girl
in a pink woolen bear suit. A tidal wave literally swept the baby from her
parents' arms when it hit their home on March 11. 'Her discovery has put a new
energy into the search,' a civil defense official told a local news crew. 'We
will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this.'"
Human hope is an amazing thing. In the face of 2,000 dead
bodies, it was the discovery of one single baby in a pink bear suit that gave
energy to the exhausted, and gave the rescuers hope once again.
Hope is not logical, it makes no sense from a numbers
perspective, and it's not something you can prove. But human beings seem to
have been built with a divine microchip inside us, the capacity for hope in the
face of suffering. Against the odds we build our case not on the devastating
deaths of thousands but upon the shrieking cry for life of one baby in a pink
bear suit.
We’ve all faced
difficulties & uncertainties. All of us are looking for some hope in the
midst of destruction. Though your difficulties may not be on the scale of the
Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but we still look for hope. We’re all looking
for something to grab hold of for a little bit of comfort amongst the
difficulties of change.
Theologian Peter Gomes says of hope…. “Hope
does not deny the circumstances of the present and hope doesn’t help us get out
of our difficulties. Hope does help us get through.”
In our bible story
today Jesus has two encounters. Jesus encounters a man with a deformed hand and
Jesus encounters Pharisees… Religious Leaders. The man with the deformed hand
is seeking some solace in the Jewish Meeting… i.e. the church. The man is
sitting in the back minding his own business and he’s just looking for some
hope and peace. Because of his deformity… he likely is ridiculed, shunned, and
shamed. Likely… the religious leaders are appalled that he’s in the church in
the first place. So… the church people see
a way to trap Jesus and confront him with a question… “Is it right to heal
someone on the Sabbath?” After-all there are rules about not doing anything on
the Sabbath. Jesus, sensing what their really up to… responds by saying…
Jesus answered, "If you had a sheep that
fell into a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn't you lift it out? People are worth
much more than sheep, and so it is right to do good on the Sabbath."
Jesus says, not only
is it right to heal… it’s good to heal on Sunday… and he heals the man right in
front of the religious leaders. Jesus seems to
imply…. What better time to heal someone than on Sunday!! Can you imagine!!! Of
course we in the church would never object to something as disruptive as this…
would we! All this guy was looking for was a little bit of Hope. All he was looking
for was someone to love him despite his deformity.
Reminds me of little Eric… who at the time was 4 years old and wanted
to receive communion with his family. So we set up a time to have a 1st
communion class. Eric was one of 14 kids who went through the class. Half the
kids received their 1st communion on one week and the others on the
following week. Eric was to receive his on the 2nd week. Eric was
over joy’d with the prospect of being able to receive communion. After the first week it became known that
there was a rule about who could receive communion. It seems a person had to be
in 8th grade as it was stated in the churches constitution. We
postponed the 2nd class… that following week after the 1st
group… Eric came up for communion with his family, instead of an ear to ear grin;
he came up with his parents with eyes of sorrow and tears in his eyes. His
parents knew of the decision to wait, but as we looked at each other Eric put
out his cupped hands saying with sad eyes, “I want Jesus to love me too.” Eric
received his 1st communion.
In that moment Eric
experienced hope. In the moment of Jesus healing the man hope was given. When
we bow to church rules we lose sight of the spirit of hope. When we lose sight of
what it means to share love… we’ve held back hope.
God’s promise of
hope is found in Jesus… as Jesus says when he quotes Isa… “He is my chosen servant! I love him… All people will place their
hope in him.” When we love… we bring hope to some one’s life.
Where do you look
for hope? We’re told to look around… there is hope all around us… just open
your eyes. The thing is… we’re often too busy to pay attention. This past week
while preparing for this message I had a brain freeze… I didn’t say it quite like
that, nonetheless, I was stuck. So what I like to do is get up and walk around
and talk to people. So… I asked Deb where she looks for hope. She responded by
saying, “I find hope in the sunrise of a new day.” Isn’t this great?
I remember a time
when I was so disappointed and frustrated because things just didn’t seem to be
going all that well. I was angry at the events going on in my life. I was angry
with myself… angry with the church… angry with the congregation I was serving. I
was emotionally & physically drained and in many ways felt hopeless. I
don’t share this as a way to get pity, but as a way to share that pastors are
human too… we are like most everyone else who struggle to find hope. At the
time I was part of a small group and a person in the group who had no idea what
I was going thru gave me a newspaper article titled “Feel Incapable? Looking
for Hope.”
Roger Campbell says, “Einstein
couldn’t speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was 7.
-
Beethoven’s music teacher said of him: “As a composer he’s
hopeless.”
-
Thomas Edison’s teacher said he was unable to learn
-
Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he
was thought to be without ideas.
-
Caruso was told by one music teacher: “You can’t sing. You
have no voice at all.”
-
An editor said Louisa Mae Alcott, who wrote “Little Women,”
would never be able to write anything that would have popular appeal.
-
Dwight L. Moody, now considered one of the most effective
evangelists of all time, had but a fifth grade education and once wept before
an audience, saying “God forgive a man who cannot properly speak the English
language.”
The disciples of Jesus were without impressive credentials,
being called ignorant and unlearned, but their contemporaries found it
impossible to ignore them because their lives demonstrated they had found
something others needed. Their dedication, courage and faith made them world
changers (Acts 17:6).
God seems to enjoy using weak but willing people to do great
things to the amazement of those who are thought to be better qualified. The
following title of a book I noticed in a pastor’s library once caught my eye
and lingers in my memory: “Why God Uses Nobodies.” Though I’ve never read the
book, its challenging title keeps encouraging me to attempt things I might have
thought too difficult for me to do.”
In our 1John reading
he says, “If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we
won’t be worried about the day of judgment. A real love for others will take
our worries away.”
Our Isaiah text
tells us… “Forget what happened long ago! Don't think about the past. I
am creating something new. There it is! Do you see it?.... The future is before
you…. Do you see it?
And that… my
friends… is where we look for hope.
See You Out On the Road
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