Sermon - 2015 - 02 -01

I met a person a few years ago, who was struggling with their faith.  Please understand that this is not an uncommon occurrence.  However, our conversation went something like this:

The other person started out: “I just don’t understand why God would allow such things to take place. Why would God allow bad things to happen to someone who I love so much?  I prayed and prayed and prayed, but still God did not listen to me.  I wanted my brother to be healed, so he could be with our family.  But God didn’t give me that miracle.  God didn’t even hear me at all.  Sometimes I wonder why I pray.”   

I continued to listen.  The other person continued with our conversation about the frustrations with doctors.  How the cancer had taken over so quickly in their brother’s life.  We prayed again. I reminded this person of Scripture. (Psalm 46)  However, I left that conversation quickly, struck by their words.  Again the person continued to use “I wanted…. I prayed, and God did not answer my prayer the way I wanted….”   It was not the time for me to tell them this message.  I share this account because sometimes we need a reminder that what God does, is not always what we ask for.  God’s Will and God’s Plan is not always something that we can see, or understand, but God does impact our lives greatly.  

Today, in the Gospel lesson, we hear of Jesus going to the local synagogue preaching a sermon to the people who were gathered there that day.  Oh how I wished that the disciples would have written down what this sermon was about, or even better yet had written down all of what Jesus said.  They did it at other times, why not a sermon Jesus delivered? What they do remember is how Jesus delivered the sermon, and what he did after he preached.  

This is the event which many of us, including this person I mentioned earlier, longs to see.  Because of our faith, we long to see God at work in the world, cleansing a person or restoring them to the community.  It is this moment, we so often long to see happening in our own life.  We want to see and hear that God is actively working among us, changing the world for the better.  It is this very instance people often want to see as evidence that God exists.  However, God does not work on our time or for that matter in our way of doing things.  God has been at work in the world from its very beginning and in so many ways that we often forget or ignore because we expect them.  For many of these things, we are involved and called to do in our own life.  

It is through our very Baptism, that we speak of God calling and claiming us by name so that we are changed. We are brought into the community through God’s own Son.  It is through Communion, we are made clean through Jesus’  own body and blood. It is through these physical and tangible things, we know that God is still active in our life.  We can feel; we can experience; and we know that God is using us in the world to do some wonderful things.  However, they are not for our own sake, but for the sake of everyone.  These things are done so others may know and experience the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.  

Today we are reminded of this message, but more importantly, we experience it.  We receive these great and wonderful gifts.  We hear what has been done for us through Jesus Christ, but also what we are called to do through our own baptism and lives.  May we all go forth, living in God’s love, and sharing that love with others.  For whether we are living or whether we are dying, we are in God’s presence. Amen.