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Creator – Salvaged Faith

Remembering Our Place #growrule

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This Lent, I have been using a tool called “Growing a Rule of Life.”  Each day there is a video and a prompt question to engage with.  And of course, I’m behind already.

 

Friday’s video reminded me that we need structure, we need planning, we need the framework in place before we start these kinds of disciplines, and the very fact that I didn’t schedule time for my days off and for Sunday (which is always a hectic day in my world) proves the point.

The question we were left with that day is simple: when you connect with nature, what is meaningful about it?

When I truly connect with nature, I find that I, myself, my ego, is diminished.  So much of my life is spent working and relating and living my life and everything revolves around myself and my calling and what I’m supposed to do or not do.

Yet when I truly connect with nature, all of that ceases.

I still my soul.

I stop.

And I am humbled by the reminder that there is so much else going on in the world that is not me.

The falling of snow flakes. The robins in the trees. The buds already forming. The hawk gliding overhead. The slow decomposition of the leaves that are life and death all wrapped into one.

And all of it continues without me.

In fact, all of this life probably would do a lot better without our human interference and selfish use and abuse of the world.

When I truly connect with nature, I am overcome with how small I am, and how beautiful the world is.

My soul cannot help but be awed by our Creator.

 

So much of the time, I’m rushing here and there, from meeting to project, to home and back.

Without creating space to stop and pause and connect with the world around us, I will forget who I am.  I will forget how insignificant these tasks are in the grand scheme of things.  I will forget that it is not about me… but my Creator.

Strength for the Weary

This morning, I have 13 reasons why I am a little bit tired and weary.

First of all, it is only 6:15 in the morning Hawaii time.  It took me about a week to get myself on Pacific time, and time changes are always more difficult when you head east.  This time next week, I’ll be operating on central standard time once again… hopefully =)

 My other twelve reasons can be summed up in this one picture.

 Last night we had a mini-lock-in to prepare for SouperBowl Subday and we had 12 awesome young people here to help out.

After two hours of work – slicing, cutting, stirring, scooping and sandwich making – we had a couple of hours of games to play and finished with worship and communion at midnight.  It was a fun evening!

After getting all of the hard work done, we played JESUS bingo for prizes, had an indoor snowball fight… with all of that scrap paper and played a rather disgusting game of “Chubby Bunny.”

I want to thank everyone who has ordered subs and soup for today.  All the money we raise from the food is going to help continue ministry with these young people and to send us on our mission trip this summer to the Twin Cities in July.

So those are my thirteen reasons for being weary this morning… but as the scripture reminds us, I have one very good reason for being strong…

28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.29He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.30Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Will you pray with me?

 

Before we dive into the meat of today’s readings, I want to give you a little background on this passage from Isaiah.

Isaiah was a prophet of Judah, or the southern part of what used to beIsrael. After King David died, thekingdomofIsraelwas basically split into two. The green part on this map shows the part which was known asIsraeland the purple shows the southernkingdomofJudah.

Isaiah is called upon by God during a very difficult time in the history of the faith.  You see, all God wanted from the people was for them to follow Him.  To trust in Him.  To let Him be the King of their lives.  But both of these kingdoms had said – No thank-you, Lord… we are going to do it yourself.

This is the God of all creation!  This is the one who sets the stars in the sky and raises up nations and kings! This is the one who had brought them victory and had given them thelandofIsraelin the first place!  And they turned their backs on him.

As a result, God let them fall.  AndIsrael, this green portion on the map, has just been conquered by the Assyrians.  They have been wiped off of the map and out of history.

And the word of God that comes to Isaiah is this:  I am the God of all creation.  I am everything that you need.  Tell the people ofJudahthat if they don’t start to follow me, if they try to trust in their own might, they will only find ruin.

For 39 chapters, Isaiah carries this word to the people ofJudah.  He warns them.  He pleads with them.  All he has to do is point to the north and remind them of what happened to their neighbors.  But his words fall on deaf ears.  And disobedience has its consequences.  God sends the Babylonians in and the kingdom of Judah is conquered.

But here is the really important part.  God does not forget the people in exile.  He sends Isaiah to them again, this time with a message of comfort and hope.  From chapter 40 on, the whole feel of this book of scripture changes.  Now that the people realize that they can’t do it on their own… now that they realize how futile it is to try… now that they are at rock bottom… God is right there, offering strength and hope and life.

Yes, Isaiah reminds us that even young people like myself will faint and be weary if we try to go on our own.  We will fall absolutely exhausted by the side of the road.  Simple youth is not a prescription for strength.  Military might will not save us.  Protein shakes  and lifting weights will not build the kind of muscles that we need here.

If we want to be spiritually strong and whole and full of life the only place that we can turn is the Lord.

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

The question that I really wrestle with is: what does it mean to wait?

After all, that seems to be the key to that verse of scripture.  Those who wait for the Lord…

Does it mean that we sit quietly and patiently?  That we stop everything else we are doing and just see what happens?

Not at all.

In fact, the Hebrew word for “waiting” is the same as the word used for twisting – like making a rope.  (It is not a passive state, but one of tension as you are being worked on. It also means to expect, gather, look patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon) and bind together. (from Lindy Black)

Blogger Lindy Black asks – Is it possible that waiting on the Lord is more than just passing time?  Is waiting on the Lord also being open and available to the will of God?

There is the old joke about the man who prayed to God that he might win the lottery… but he never went out and bought a ticket.

If we dive deep into what this word “wait” means… it is not passive, it is active, expectant, full of hope and tension as we not only wait for God to act, but we also wait upon the Lord in service and worship.

I have quite a few friends who are pregnant right now, and as they “wait” for these new lives to come into the world – they can tell you that waiting is not passive.  It is painful.  It is full of uncomfortable moments. But in the midst of it all, your life and the life of that child are one.  What you eat matters. What you drink matters. How you move matters.  A relationship is formed in the process of the waiting.  Your life and their life is bound together – it is entwined.

That’s how it should be when we wait upon the Lord… our life becomes entwined with God’s as we serve him… as we are bound together… and in the process, his strength becomes our strength – he takes our single cord and with others in the church we are made into the many… we are made strong.

[retell the story of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law – a woman who found her strength and her salvation… what is the first thing she does?  She serves.]

In her book “On Your Mark: Reading Mark in the Shadow of the Cross,” Megan McKenna talks about this amazing act of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law:

I am often amazed that this last line offends many, especially women, who may cynically respond, “That’s why she was healed, to be a servant to the men.” But they have missed the meaning of the phrase “to wait on them,” which is the term used for a deacon. She “ministers” to him, just as the “angels ministered to him” during his time in the desert. Jesus has gone out to Simon’s mother-in-law in her disease and grasped her by the hand for the victory of justice. In gratitude for his taking hold of her and giving her life to do his work, she responds wholeheartedly. Now the first four followers of Jesus become five in number.

I think her strength comes not only from the healing power of Jesus.  Her strength comes from the fact that she is serving Jesus.  That she has bound herself to him.  That she has let him come into her life and now it is Christ’s strength that flows out of her.

Suzanne Guthrie writes:

Peter’s mother-in-law is lifted up, as in the Resurrection… And she begins to serve – just as the apostles are sent out… She is the church’s first deacon. She announces the Gospel by her action. Healed, transformed, and readily at service she slips into her role as easily as if her life-time had prepared her for it… She serves, like Jesus himself… She receives the Light into her home, she is raised up by the Light, the Light shines through her as she ministers to others.

That is what we are also called to do.  Whether we are old or young, rich or poor, weak or strong.  To accept the light of God into our life and to let it transform us and give us strength.

What Isaiah was trying to teach the people of Judah is that our power has nothing to do with us.  Our power is God’s.  Our strength is the Lord’s.

those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.