Spiritual Truth for Strange Times
Rerouting: Navigating a Changing World
August 16, 2020 – Brad Bailey
Intro
Well...good morning to each of you who have joined our gathering this morning... and welcome to each of you who may be watching at a later time.
I want to reintroduce the weekly series and focus that we began last week. It’s entitled Rerouting: Navigating a Changing World.
In many ways...this season of life can be a bit like when we use a map application... ... like Google maps and it needs to reset course...something in the route changes...and some sort of spinning shape begins... with the word: “rerouting.”
This can capture this season in life because in a similar way we were moving along in life...and then a pandemic brought change. Changes to our path. Change to our patterns. Changes to our plans.
We are all in a strange time of rerouting... of navigating a changing world.
One aspect of being rerouted...is that you can find yourself in unfamiliar places... and sometimes for uncertain periods of time. We find ourselves feeling stuck in a strange place.
In different ways we may sense we are in a strange place... because nothing feels the same. For some of us it may be that a lot of working life or central activity has stopped... and left huge unknows and uncertainty about the future... and it’s a strange place to be.
Families with school age kids may feel like the whole pattern of kids going from home to school and then back home... has just lost the natural separation and scheduling ....and it’s a strange place to be.
Some who are older may feel less a loss in some of the big patterns and plans...but feel the most basic concerns for avoiding contact...which itself is a strange place to be.
The dynamics of our current life are really unique...but of course many of us may have experienced some significant unexpected turns along the road in the past as well... and come to some different types of strange places. You may have come to the loss of a marriage... or the untimely loss of a child or loved one. At some point your life may have turned around a corner you never planned on.
At such times we may feel a bit disoriented ...even spiritually disoriented. We may have had a life in which we had a good sense about rising each day to be faithful. But now we aren’t sure how to navigate being faithful.
If any of that reflects what you may feel inside...even in small or subtle way...I want you to know....that you are in good company. You are not alone. We are all in a strange place. And we are in the good company of those who have gone before us. I am speaking about those who those who are deemed to be the foundations of faith...of having faithfully lived in relationship with God. I’m referring to the many lives God chose to call and raised up through the long history of revealing Himself and his nature. They are among those who are later lifted up as the historical heroes of faith.
Today God speaks to us from those lives. Let me mention just four of these lives. To those who are less familiar with the Bible... and particularly the Old Testament...it’s a great opportunity to get quickly introduced or reintroduces to three of those figures in the Old Testament...and one who is central to the New Testament time of Christ. So here is a quick introduction to four lives who reveal how to have faith when live leads you into strange places.
The first is Abraham.
On screen text / not spoken: Abraham – “Father of Faith” – Left everything “to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him...”...and waited through barren years “to become a father, even though he was old.”
When God first begins to call out a new people to whom he would make himself known...it begins with a call to Abraham. He says essentially... “Abraham I am going to make you into a great nation of people. So the first thing I want you to do...is to get up and leave everything that is familiar...and I will lead you to a new land.” Where is this place? God won’t tell him where or when he will arive. He just says I will lead you and let you know when you are there. That is some serious rerouting of life. We know that Abraham had become a man of prominence and prosperity... and from now he would always be a foreigner. It was precisely in the strange place ... one of uncertainty.... that Abraham became a man of faith.
And as for becoming the great nation through all the children he would have? There’s little doubt that he and his wife Sarah were ready. But they would wait and wait and wait... unable to conceive a child......which in those times was deemed to mean cursed by God. Every day they were supposed to represent Gpd’s promise as those blessed by God to become this new nations...while every day they lived as those who appeared to be abandoned by God. Day after day... year after year...for 25 years until the birth of Isaac in their really late years.
And this is what was written about his life...
Faith led Abraham to obey when God called him to go to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. Abraham left his own country without knowing where he was going. 9 Faith led Abraham to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God. 10 Abraham was waiting for the city that God had designed and built, the city with permanent foundations. 11 Faith enabled Abraham to become a father, even though he was old and Sarah had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise. 12 Abraham was as good as dead. Yet, from this man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore. - Hebrews 11:8-12 (GW) ?
That summarized the faith of a life that was rerouted.
Another great figure of faith was Joseph.
On screen text / not spoken: Joseph – Left nearly dead and sold into slavery by his brothers... then imprisoned unjustly... until he finally rises to administrator of Egypt.
Three generations further. The kids are flowing. Abrahams grandson Jacob had 12 sons... and several daughters. He loved all of his sons...but his favorite was Joseph... you may recall he gives him a special coat... and his brothers say...let’s go for a walk...and nearly kill him....but slave traders come...so they sell him... and return to their father... with a sad story about how an animal killed him. And the once favored son of a prosperous family is now a slave. Talk about life rerouting and finding yourself in a strange place.
As we read in the Book of Genesis we read...
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. - Genesis 39:1-4 ?
Some of you remember... that was just the first stage. Potipher’s wife digs him...tries to seduce him...and when he runs off...she accused him of trying to force himself on her...and he is imprisoned. And again, he would rise in faithfulness... helping from prison but he would again be betrayed...and forgotten...and remain in prison for two more years ...until finally he becomes a key administrator in Egypt. But it would be 13 years after being thrown into a pit to die by his brothers. If you’ve ever thought that your dream roads have taken some strange turns... you are in good company.
Now lets not forget about the life of Moses.
On screen text / not spoken: Moses – Raised within the house of Egypt’s Pharaoh...rejected by his own Israelite people he tries to stand up for... lives nomadic life in desert for 40 years... before called back by God.... to lead the way of freedom.
After Joseph’s family and people were welcomed to Egypt during the family.... they grew in number... and after several years...a new Pharaoh in Egypt who didn’t have that connection to Joseph’s service to Egypt...well he feared that the Israelites in the land would grow to powerful and saw them as a threat to Egypt....so Egypt began to enslave them. At one point the Pharaoh calls for all the infant boys to be killed. As an Israelite infant, Moses is sent down the stream in a basket by his mother and pulled out by Pharaoh’s daughter and then raised in Pharaoh’ s home. He becomes essentially in the position of a prince of Egypt...but one day he stands up for the Israelite slaves...which are his people. It could have been his great moment ...the end of a great story... but instead... the Israelites wanted nothing to do with him. So now... he has no one to go to...and no place to go...so he just walks off into the desert.
And he begins a time in a strange place... this prince and most eligible bachelor of Egypt...would simply find a nomadic family of sheep herders...who would allow him to join them.
He was 40 years old. And now 40 years would go by in that desert... the central part of his life. And then God came calling to Moses...to come serve the cry of his Israelite people...by confronting Pharaoh. And he returns to confront Pharaoh... and that became the beginning of another 40 years of leading the Israelite people...in the desert...for forty years. What I want us to consider...is that Moses spent his entire life in a strange place... he bore the deep wounds of abandonment... an Israelite raised as an Egyptianthen was rejected by his own... then taken in by a desert dwelling sheep herders... and just when he may have finally felt he had a home... he is called to return to Egypt where he would have to confront everyone who had rejected him. He would spend 40 more years leading the people as they wandered through the desert to their Promised Land. He has a lot to teach is about having faith in strange places.
And finally...
I want to include the Apostle Paul.
On screen text / not spoken: Paul – He is a rising leader among the Jewish religious culture... whom the risen Jesus confronts... and is led into a life of being a “spiritual foreigner” ... defined no longer by his faithfulness in law-keeping but faithfulness to the grace of Christ... bearing indignation and imprisonment from the cultural world he once led.
If you have not read the Bible, let explain who Paul is. He is a figure from the New Testament part of the Bible. The Bible is divided into two Testaments... “Old” and “New”... they testify of God’s covenants with humanity. The old testament testifies of the old covenant in which God extends himself to the new people of Israel...and they are to honor making the true and living God of all creation known by honoring his good nature. And the new testament reveals the new covenant that sets forth God’s own nature in providing the fulfillment of that righteousness in Christ. What Israel...like all humanity could not fulfill... God comes in Christ to fulfill. The figure we know as Paul...had been a rising leader among the Jewish religious leader...and was persecuting those who had now turned to follow the way of Jesus.... and then God interrupts his life quite dramatically... and he is left blind for 3 days... and when he regains sight...he is among strangers... who begin to explain his encounter and he realizes that indeed Christ was the fulfillment of all that God had planned. His life is entirely rerouted. He is in the ultimate of strange places. He becomes the ultimate spiritual foreigner ... defined no longer by his faithfulness in law-keeping but now in faithfulness to the grace of Christ. He becomes a significant leader of the new people whom Christ is now living in and through... called the church. What we can easily miss...is that Paul’s life would now find itself in a very strange place. He was initially distrusted by many of those following Jesus because he was the once who had been persecuting them...but he would now also become an enemy of this own religious culture. He bore indignation and imprisonment from the cultural world he once led. He had to develop a faith that knew about feeling abandoned...alone... and uncertain of what would come.
These are the lives that have gone before us... and God raises them up as examples of faith. If you find that your life is in a strange place...you are in good company. If you find your faith seems a little out of sync... a little disoriented because all the patterns and plans are not what they were... you are in good company. I believe God speaks to us through their examples.
Every one of them was on a very set course in life.
Abraham was quite settled and successful as a Patriarch of his land. Joseph was all set to enjoy the future that had been envisioned for him as the favorite sone of a successful family. Moses... wow... a prince of Egypt. Paul... a rising star among the most important roles of his people.
Every one of them found themselves in a strange place...in a world no longer familiar.
Every one of them had to wonder... is the whole journey over?
Every one of these models of faith... felt abandoned... alone...and unclear.
Every one of them... would learn about faith when life has led you into a strange place.
So let’s quickly let those truths speak to us. Let’s consider the lies that arise in such strange times and places...and the truth they learned. The first lie may be this...
Lie: God must not have any real plan for my life if it involves waiting this long.
Waiting can be hard. When we find ourselves waiting ...it can be the sphere of greatest confusion. It is a space in which an enemy of our souls whispers ... “See... there’s nothing here.”
But when I look at these lives... they tell the truth.
1. God bears a divine patience and our faith will involve cultivating our own holy patience.
When I consider these lives... I see how lacking I am in divine patience.
Moses... was left to start a new life in the desert for 40 years. And I can’t wait 40 minutes for pizza without thinking it’s never going to come.
When I consider all the lives who have gone before me in finishing a life faithfully...I see how lacking I am in divine patience.
When I consider how much we have been shaped to expect immediate gratification...how impatient we are in waiting... I begin to see how patience is the virtue we may need most.
And it’s helpful to understand that patience is not merely passive. True patience is not weakness. Rather... Holy patience is the strength to wait with purpose.
This is not a time to simply accept the “new normal”,,, because God did not design us for social distancing in and of itself... nor for many of the losses and limits that are a part of this strange place we find ourselves. But if I believe he has the power to work in this time...then I don’t accept it as good in itself...I don’t just settle into it...but I realize I need to find a holy patience... that can trust God in the midst. I can realize that my soul has been shaped by my “this fast food isn’t fast enough” culture...and consider Abraham waiting to have a child... still having faith....Joseph waiting years in prison... still having faith....and all the others. And I can begin to slow down...and find some peace through holy patience.
Here is another lie that they faced in such times...
Lie: God is no longer with me...no longer working in my life.
We all have some understanding that the world is not perfect because it is operating outside God’s will. So we may not assume that every hard experience is a sign of God not caring about us. But the truth is that we still think that the blessed life is the easy life. We just feel God’s love us more when the weather is beautiful...when we get a parking spot at Costco on the first loop... when we have a job...when our kids are doing well. And of course in the same way...if the world’s blessings aren’t flowing freely...we feel the hand of blessing may have been lifted.
It may help to realize that this is exactly the lie that sought to dishearten even Christ. As he bore the cross...they shouted...”Where are the angels to come help you now? You are abandoned.” In fact...that is exactly what God prophesied would be the ultimate fate of the Messiah...that he would take on the consequences of this world...and we would deem him to be cursed by God. God knows this is the ultimate lie. And God further had explained through the prophets, that we will see that Christ will be raised up and exalted...for he is the beloved son.
And Jesus himself wanted to prepare us for his lie. One of the last things he told his disciples is this...
"A time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:32-33
Jesus knew that health and wealth are blessings...but in this time in which the world is not under complete alignment with God... the inherent blessings of health and wealth are not simply signs of blessing. He wanted to reassure them about what they should understand when they see him suffer. He wanted them to reassure them about what they would face as well.
“You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”
Jesus wanted them to understand...he was never alone. They would never be alone.
And this is what those who went before us found. The refrain we hear in the lives of those who went before us this... “and God was with them.” When it may have appeared otherwise... when they faced hardship....when there seemed to be noting that was going to serve the time table we would defines as being with us... God was actually with them.
As it’s been said... “Don’t doubt in the dark what you have seen in the light.” The truth we need to embrace is this...
2. When it appears that we are abandoned and alone...God is with us ...allowing our faith to develop new depths of trust.
A child may wonder if they are loved when they face disease.... but what’s in the heart of a loving parent is actually never more committed and present. They are simply each in a different position.
And we can do this with freedom to be real with what we feel. Jesus modeled genuine feelings guided by a trusting spirit. As he suffered on the cross... he cried out the cry “Father why have you forsaken me?”...but he then said “Father... into your hands I submit my spirit.” That may serve us as we navigate what it means to be faithful in strange times. God is not afraid of our feelings. But our relationship can ultimately develop a trust...even in what we can’t understand... a trusting spirit.
That trust is formed in a daily relationship. So I want to encourage you to let God love you every day... by coming into His presence.
There is another lie which each of those who went before us had to face...as we will...
Lie: If life leads me into a strange place... I can forget about being faithful...and simply resign myself to passivity.
When we feel like larger life forces and life circumstances have taken over our lives... there’s a subtle lie that can begin to creep into our sense of faithfulness, It may suggest that it doesn’t seem to matter what we do. If God isn’t going to rescue us...then we might as well just not worry about how we live in relationship to Him.
I have no doubt that every life that went before us...had similar thoughts. But here is what God says to us through their lives.
3. Wherever we are... regardless of what we cannot do... we can be faithful to what we can do.
Abraham... learned to develop his tribe in a new land. He developed positive relationships... learned new ways. When Joseph had be torn from his role as the favorite son of a successful family...even when enslaved or imprisoned... he developed new roles and experiences. Moses had been raised to be a prince... but he humbled himself and learned how to raise sheep. Paul was a highly educated leader...and he humbled himself to learn about Jesus from those who were religious drop-outs... with no formal education.
We can learn a lot from these lives. We should all ask ourselves... what can I be faithful to do during this season? (We will expand on that next week.)
Let me add one last and very similar lie.
Lie: The great goals are over... I’ve come to a dead end to anything meaningful.
...or at least a barrier to anything worthwhile.
Every one of those who have gone before is must have thought that the life that really mattered was done.
Some of us likely feel at least some sense of having lost the momentum...and perhaps even the meaning of life. Here is the truth God declares through these lives.
4. No matter how little I can understand... I can have faith that God is sovereignly working his greater purposes... so what feels like a dead end always has a new beginning.
Think about these lives who went before us. Think about what they must have struggled with... and each of them did. I believe that they must have struggled deeply with feeling that the strange place they were in was the ultimate dead end of their hopes and dreams
Imagine what Abraham had to process. He had to face the appearance of a dead end... the blessing that I am supposed to represent... of my offspring forming a new nation... but day after day without bearing a child we have sown nothing but disgrace. And yet here we are today... thousands of years later...and not only was the nation of Israel birthed... but that nation of Israel is at the center of the world stage...and through that people... a savior has come to bless all the nations of the world.
Imagine what Joseph had to process. He must have thought: I was the favorite son...and now I’m destined to have no place in my family... and no future like my father spoke blessings about. The dreamer had to let his dreams find new meaning. In so doing...he would be the one who brought the greatest blessing to his family...and the means for the whole people of Israel to survive a famine through the position he had been given in Egypt.
Imagine what Moses had to process. Thinking... I was raised to lead a nation... now I just have a nice socially distanced existence with a family and these sheep. He learned how little he controlled in life...and that was the faith he would need to go forward. Some of us may be learning what it means to have faith that can’t be attached to our plans. By doing so... Moses became a leader of greater significance than even the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Imagine what Paul had to process.... he thought he was going to be the star among religious leaders...now he’s entirely out of the religious system that defined his future. Imagine how lost he must have felt. But without any of the clarity he once knew... he chose to trust God’s sovereignty ... to have a faith beyond what he could understand. He had a faith that didn’t allow hardships to stop him. So we do well to listen to what he wrote for all to hear...
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. - 2 Corinthians 4:8-10?
At this point Paul was a master at navigating life being rerouted...and left in strange places. Paul had been persecuted... got stoned...not in the currently common use of that term. This was the nature when the community drives you into a corner and then seeks to bury you under stones. He was imprisoned.
His life tells us: There really is no ultimate dead end.
Paul becomes a model for us in such times. He was never bound by circumstances. He was the ultimate missionary... he saw potential and he pursued it. Some plans had to take last minute changes. He changed plans and trusted the new opportunities that came. He was placed in prison more than once... and trusted God with whether he would live or be freed.
If Paul was in prison... he shared God’s love with the few who were around him. So can we.
He prayed even more for those who could not visit. So can we.
He didn’t allow his physical limitations to define his purpose. So can we.
As he explained... “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” He embraced that death had already been dealt with by Christ... and he accepted that same submission of life as his own... so he wasn’t living just to avoid death. But rather... the very purpose of Christ was now alive in him...so if he lived...he lived for that purpose. So no matter what circumstances he faces... if he is alive... he will assume he is still carrying the same purpose... that of Christ.
Paul knew the power of faith to infuse life with a purpose that could never change.
Your life has as much purpose today as it had 6 months ago.
Paul had come to realize the source of true purpose and power...and he lived his life in relationship to that purpose...and that power.
What is around you is not in control of who you are. As I described last week... You may think the headlines dictate your life. They don’t. You are writing the headlines of your life each day.
Closing Prayer
