Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 6/25/2023, Matthew 10
When things are not going well, have you ever felt that God was distant and didn’t care?
When challenges come, have you ever felt afraid, isolated, and even abandoned?
Today I’d like to talk about God’s hiddenness - something we’ve all experienced - but even more importantly I’d like us to consider what’s behind this - in a message called ‘God is here to help, not hinder.’
Because when you’re feeling like you’re facing the challenges in front of you, all by your self - you’re all alone, scared and anxious - God’s not hiding, God is working.
God is here to help, not hinder.
------
In grade school, I knew it was spring when 1) the days got longer, 2) the weather got warmer, and 3) my friend Danny would start to sneeze more loudly than his dad - and we all know, there’s nothing more powerful than a "dad sneeze…"
It was those seasonal allergies that so many of us endure and can be so elusive to cure, as it was with Danny who was on pills, nasal sprays, and assorted medications, that we saw him pull out at lunchtime in the cafeteria every day.
Danny's condition persisted until one day when his mother took him to see his Uncle John.
He was a gut doctor. This is a special kind of physician who analyzes the contents of your stomach and digestive tract to determine if there's the wrong kind of bacteria or other organisms at play, disrupting your health.
After a detailed analysis, Danny's uncle determined that there were some problems that needed addressing, and he prescribed a strict regimen for my friend that included no eggs, no dairy, and very limited carbohydrates - to which Danny immediately objected:
"What? No ice cream? No chips, toast, or popcorn? Is Uncle John trying to kill me? What did I ever do to him?"
Of course, his Uncle wasn't trying to hurt him, nor was he angry with him.
Uncle John was trying to help him.
And this kind of misunderstanding often happens not just with doctors, but with God.
-------
One of the more difficult steps I took as a teenager was to make a decision to follow Christ.
I was a high school Junior attending a Bible study and learning that the things that were said and done among my church friends were increasingly at odds with what my 'cool school' friends were saying and doing at parties on Friday nights - and later on, in cars parked in dark parking lots.
And the Christian faith came across as strict and limiting, warning against drinking, smoking, improper relationships with girls, and not disparaging or joking at the expense of others.
What was Jesus trying to do but make me an outcast, dropping me way down in ranking on the 'Cool Kids' chart? All of these harsh, difficult rules, why would God do this? Why was he so angry with me?
I remember my friends calling me up to go out with them. I knew what they were going to do - how they were going to talk - and what kind of position that would put me in.
And when I said ’No, I’m not going to be able to come,’ I knew I was building a new reputation as a ‘goody two shoes’ - and I would not be long for that social group.
I knew those relationships would not be strengthened.
But I knew my relationship with God, would be.
Because I knew that God's rules were not there to hinder, but to help.
As we all know, avoiding drinking is probably one of the healthiest and wisest things a young person can do. Same with smoking and promiscuity - it simply saved me from a world of hurt I would later observe in others, who would suffer from addiction, disease, trouble with the law, even one friend who was involved in a fatal drunk driving accident.
Yes, the Church, Christians, even Jesus, can come across as harsh, domineering, and angry - when we look at some of the rules prescribed by our faith.
But I am not the only one here who is thanking God this morning for saving me from a world of potential hurt - because God is not trying to hinder, but to help.
-------
The Bible is clear in its assessment of you as a treasured and precious, unique and indispensable, intentionally purposed, one-of-a-kind jewel of a person.
The Bible says that ‘even the hairs on your own head are counted.’
I read a commentary once that said the Greek word actually means ’numbered’ not ‘counted’ - so God has put hair number 10,187 then 10,188, 10,189 etc. upon your head - as a way for us to know that every part of you, no matter how small, matters to God - and has its own place in God’s inventory.
Then, in the book of Genesis, the book stands alone among ancient origin stories when it tells us in chapter 1 that God scooped up a handful of dirt - soil - in Hebrew, Adam, and God pulled that soil next to God's mouth and took a deep breath before exhaling on that dirt - and the life-giving, love-infused, high-powered-holy-spirit breath of God instantly transformed worthless, good-for-nothing, dirt into the magic that is you.
It's because of who God is and what God has done, that no one is more loved, more valued, and more worthy than you.
God sees such value in us that God came to earth - in Jesus - to be one of us - and to show us how to live as beloved, empowered, and purposed people.
Your one, precious, irreplaceable life is of infinite purpose.
Don't get caught up in the lies that seek to measure you by any yardstick that is not God’s.
You are not what you wear.
You are not where you work.
You are not what you drive.
You are not where you live.
You are not what you eat.
You are not who you know.
You are not what you own.
You are not what you earn.
You are not your greatest achievement - or your worst mistake.
You are God's Great masterpiece that is destined for perfection not only through the good times but through the bad. God's measure of you is much higher than you’ll ever know.
That's who you are.
God never wants us to forget how beloved and worthy of attention, affection, and forgiveness we are.
Did you know this?
Probably.
But we often forget - to our detriment - and it causes us to live constrained and constricted lives.
Years ago, there was a poor man in England named Gordon who saved up all of the money he could make, looking for broken horseshoes by the roadside - and selling them as scrap to the blacksmith.
After years of doing this, Gordon had finally saved up enough money to pay for the cheapest cabin available on a passenger ship sailing for Australia, that land of opportunity, which is where he wanted to go to start a new life.
In the weeks preceding his voyage Gordon was able to fill a canvas bag the size of a pillowcase with peanuts, dried fruit, and dried out bread to eat in his crossing, which, once he got on that ship, he did every day.
Then, on the last night before his arrival in Australia, Gordon happened across the woman who was in the cabin next door.
'It's so nice to meet you!', she said, 'I thought we would have bumped into each other weeks ago in the dining hall!' 'Nope,' said Gordon, 'I can't afford the dining hall, I brought my own food, 'Oh, said the woman, 'but the food is free, it's included in the price of the ticket.'
I wonder how much of our lives are lived under the constraints of our own ignorance, forgetfulness, and misperceptions about how God has made and equipped you and me?
How often do we fail to remember that God loves us so much - and has promised to provide and be with us through everything? How often we lose sight of God’s ever-presence with us - assuring us that everything’s going to work out OK?
I wonder how often we forget that God is here to help, not hinder?
So-
What sort of burdens have you come to church with this morning?
Are you having a hard time forgiving somebody, or yourself?
Are you anxious about the bills, the kids, or the plight of the nation?
Are you simply exhausted from having to keep so many balls in the air that you feel unsteady and uncertain about what's going to happen next?
God is here to help, not to hinder.
----------
I'll admit that it's hard to get this impression when Jesus gives us an image of himself like the one on our bulletin covers.
There’s Jesus - carrying a sword.
It's a violent image of pain and division, of aggression and attack.
But then we realize that sharp, steel implements can be used by soldiers and surgeons,
by kidnappers and woodworkers, by street thugs and master chefs.
A sword can be used as a weapon or a tool.
Jesus wants us to use it as a tool.
I have a dear friend whose son became an alcoholic in graduate school. He was as brilliant as he was helpless when he had a bottle in his hand.
My friend did all he could to help his son, sending him to pricey clinics and subsidizing his living expenses, but his son would not stop taking advantage of his father's charity and get serious about his sobriety.
So his father did what a lot of us have had to do: cut him off.
Have him fend for himself.
Take a new tact at trying to bring that boy back to his senses.
Oh, this is hard to do, parents, isn't it?
We pray and grieve and lose sleep and second-guess ourselves - it's because we don't do these things out of some sort of masochistic pleasure, we do it because we deeply care about our loved one, and we never, ever stop loving them.
This is the same with God.
God is trying to bring us to our senses - to our right minds - back to reality - where health, prosperity, and abundance carry the day - so we can live the lives of joy and fulfillment God intends.
For we know that division and disruption is not something God does joyfully or vindictively - but in hope and love.
God is not trying to hinder but to help.
--------------
Growing up in a family with a lot of auto workers, many of them were worried back in the 1980’s when big strides were being made by robotics companies - and all of a sudden we saw robots putting cars together - no longer were welds and paint being applied by humans - but by robots!
"Oh no!" Screamed the workers and unions - “What’s going to happen to our jobs - and even the middle class?” The threat of disruption was clear!
Sure, fewer people may be needed to put the cars together - but what we saw was workers getting smarter - as they learned to run the machines - and this great upheaval actually led to improvement in quality, productivity, and competitiveness on many levels.
We often look at disruption as bad, but it doesn’t have to be.
God uses disruption to improve things and bring about needed change.
Disruption and difficulty is often the precursor to something better.
God realizes that many of us need to endure difficulties by breaking out of productive patterns and lifestyles - very importantly, the unhealthy and often dysfunctional family systems we've been born into.
I've read, in Dr. Ruby Payne's insightful analysis into class structure, that the most significant hurdle that poor people who aspire to higher levels of education, income, and housing face, is their own families - who can say things like, 'Isn't our neighborhood good enough for you?' - 'I never went to college, are you better than us because you want to go?' -
It's because most family members want to keep the people they love close - we enjoy and need them on many levels.
AND
Because most family members want to keep those they love safe.
It's a big, scary world out there and we don't want to see you harmed.
But we must be brave enough to see that we don't come from our parents, we come through them.
God got each one of us into this world in a miraculous way, and we are authentic in our feelings of appreciation for those who have gotten us here, but we can never forget:
Our families aren't perfect, only God is.
One of the biggest and most popular fallacies we hear trumpeted about is this notion that 'family must be first', 'unity at any price' , 'You only have one family,' which all sounds well and good if we all have perfect families... which would be precisely none of us...
The needful correction is that 'God must be first,' 'Unity without justice is false,' and 'You can have more than one family because you are a member of God's family!'
How many times does the Gospel remind us that the way of Jesus is the narrow way, the difficult way - it's inconvenient, unpopular, uncomfortable, and dangerous - and what parent wants that for their loved one?
Unless we're God - and see the bigger picture!
God sees that the joy of victory only comes after the difficult toil of training,
That the vaccine is only discovered after the countless late nights of research,
That the big sale is only made after 10 people have slammed the door in our faces.
God has put a dream, a vision, a plan, a purpose in our hearts and it will only come after we overcome.
It will only come after a disruption of the current reality - a difficulty - a division - to make way for God’s new reality.
The adversities we are facing, the difficult decisions, the anxious moments, the hard times, are things God knows well - and God is standing alongside us keeping it all together.
I’d like to close with a personal story.
Years ago, I moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school in theology.
I did not have a sponsoring church or any plans to become a minister until my first year when I visited a church called All Saints. It was there that God spoke to me and called me into the ministry.
I soon found out there were a lot of requirements - classes to take, degrees to earn, ministry experiences in parishes and hospitals. And all along the way there were committees to meet with who would assess my progress and aptitude for work as a minister.
After 3 years of study, I went before one of these committees for assessment.
After a few hours the head of the committee called me and said they didn’t believe I was called and they were not going to ordain me.
Crestfallen, I asked the Lord, ‘Why have you brought me this far, only to abandon me?’
God was firm in responding to me: ‘People have not called you, I have. And what I have begun in you, I will carry out. Don’t be discouraged, keep at it.’
So, I called my friends at All Saints and we worked out a plan for me to get another review in a year.
The following year I returned to that committee.
And a second time, the committee chair called and said, ‘We’re sorry, but we just don’t see it. We’re not recommending you for ordination.’
Crushed - again - I asked the Lord, ‘Why have you brought me this far, only to abandon me?’
Again, God was firm in responding to me: ‘People have not called you, I have. And what I have begun in you, I will carry out. Don’t be discouraged, keep at it.’
I did not know how this was going to happen - because ordination was not like baseball, you didn’t get three strikes.
But I was firm in what God had told me in my heart.
And so, I went back to my friends at All Saints and they made another petition on my behalf.
For that third interview I made it plain that the Lord had called me - and with friends across the country praying and the Holy Spirit working - I was approved by this committee - which is the only reason I’m standing before you today.
This morning, you may be facing a similar situation in your life.
You may have two strikes against you.
You may be asking, ‘Where’s God? Why have you abandoned me?’
Through that 3 year process I learned to trust God.
I learned that God was not my enemy, God was my ally.
That’s the same for you.
God is not working against you – but for you.
It doesn’t matter what that committee, boss, neighbor, or family member has to say:
God is on your side.
You belong to God and God is well-aware of the challenges you’re facing – and will deliver in God’s good time.
God is not here to hinder but to help.
Amen.