at Bayou Manor Assisted Living on May 4, 2007
A Marine Colonel on his way home from work at the Pentagon comes to a dead halt in traffic and thinks to himself, "Wow, this traffic seems worse than usual, nothing is moving."
He notices a police officer walking back and forth between the lines of cars, so he rolls down his window and asks, "Excuse me, Officer, what seems to be the hold up?"
The officer replies, "The President is just so depressed that Hillary has moved to New York, and may leave him altogether that he just stopped his motorcade in the middle of the Beltway, and he's threatening to douse himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. He says his family absolutely hates him and he doesn't have the $33.5 million he owes his lawyers for that whole Monica and Paula thing. So I'm walking around taking up a collection for him."
"Oh really? How much have you collected so far?
"So far about three hundred gallons, but I've got a lot of folks still siphoning."
Bill Clinton is one man who knows something about going through trouble. One of the things he learned is that there are people watching you. We get that same idea in Hebrews 12:1-2 except instead of watching us to catch us doing something wrong these people are watching us to cheer us on in our lives. We read ... "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us ..." That scripture passage reminds us that we are not alone. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They are cheering for us. They want us to succeed in our earthly mission. To use a sports metaphor, we have the home field advantage because God came down to this planet. God became human. God has claimed planet earth through creation and redemption. Wherever we go we are never the visiting team. We are always the home team. We always have home field advantage, even here at Bayou Manor. Momentum is on our side.
We also gain momentum from the cloud of witnesses that cheer us on as we run the race of life. This cloud of witnesses is found in our families, our congregations, our neighborhoods and the society at large. We are all greatly indebted to the persons who raised us, guided us, taught us and protected us. We repay those debts by doing whatever we can to better society by passing on some of their love to others, by reaching out and listening to the cries of those who have fallen through the cracks of life. We reach out to others because somewhere along the way someone reached out to us in God's name.
Professor Paul Brown is one person who reached out to me. Paul served the church as professor of preaching and worship at Memphis Theological Seminary. I got to know him when he taught one of the seminars in my Doctor of Ministry program. Paul then became my advisor for the final paper I had to write for that degree. He was a great editor and mentor and we became close friends. I had been preaching for several years by that time but I still was not comfortable writing a sermon. In fact, I did not know how to write a sermon. Paul graciously consented to teach me. Over the course of a couple of years, each week I would email my sermon in progress to Paul and he would comment on it and help me edit it. He always challenged me to focus in on one idea and stick with that theme for the entire sermon.
After a few years, I remember one week when I thought I finally had gotten the hang of sermon writing and I no longer needed to send my sermons to Paul for his review. I sent it to him anyway out of habit. Strangely, he did not immediately respond to my email as he usually did. In fact, he did not respond for several days. I thought he must be having computer problems and that is why he hadn't responded to my email. That had happened before. Finally, after two weeks of no response, I called his house and talked to his wife. She said, "Jon, I'm sorry. Paul died last week. He was in a car wreck on his way to preach in Arkansas. He was at a stop sign and there was an 18 wheeler approaching and he thought he could beat it across the road but it ran right into him. He struggled in the hospital for several days but he never regained consciousness. Last Monday he died in the hospital." In the midst of my shock, I told Paul's wife how he had been a mentor to me and how we had been emailing one another every day and how he helped me learn how to preach. She said she had heard similar stories from several people since he had died.
I attended Paul's memorable funeral service. The funeral preacher knew him well and did him justice. The church was full of people whose lives Paul had touched over his years as a seminary professor, preacher and community activist. The casket was in front, closed, with a beautiful white pall over it. And I knew Paul, antsy as ever, was skipping up in heaven. I felt in that moment as if Paul had passed a part of himself on to me. It was akin to the feeling I got when I ran in the 400 meter yard dash in high school. I was on the second relay of that race. The first sprinter would carry the baton half-way around the track. I timed my start to when he reached a certain place on the track. When I was running at full sprint the first relay runner would hand the baton to me. I carried the baton half way around the track and then passed it on to the next relay runner. Paul Brown is now among my cloud of witnesses. He is sitting up there in heavens bleachers cheering me on. You see, when he died, Paul Brown passed the preaching baton to me.
You have your own stories you could share. Stories about people who have made a difference in your life. Stories about people who passed the baton of faith to you. Their early race is done and now they cheer you on from the heavenly bleachers.
Former presidential hopeful John Edwards drifted away from his faith when he left home to attend college. His faith became a matter of routine. He attended church, but had no personal , vibrant, resonant faith. Then, tragically, his 16 year old son died. Afterward, his faith in God "came roaring back" and hasn't left him since.
I know some of you have similar stories. Stories of pain and loss. Sometimes struggle makes us aware of just how much we depend on God: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." (Ps. 46:1)
Whatever trouble we're going through, God is always with us. Paul himself was "perplexed" as to why he was suffering, but he knew that he could have faith (trust) in God. Since Jesus suffered, as followers of Jesus, we too will sometimes suffer, for "no servant is greater than his master" (John 13:16). How great a promise God gives us that he will never abandon us!
A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved.
They boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon.
The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?".
They boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?"
The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?"
Sometimes our imaginations run wild and we get stuck in a negative mode of thinking. What is troubling you today? Our natural instinct is to obsess over the "why?" question. Instead, why not try to focus on the "What?" question: "What shall I do next?" Then leave the rest to God, who is our refuge, gives us strength in times of trouble, and gave His life so we will live.
Several people have told me their favorite Bible verse is from Philippians 4:13: "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me."
As the prophet Isaiah says in our text today: "Thus says the LORD, he who created you ..., he who formed you ...: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'" We are here today because God has redeemed us and called us by name.
God's message to each of us today is this: "Do not fear." The Lord says: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." We are not in this alone. As Paul says, "Whether we live or whether we die; we belong to the Lord."
God's final word to each of us when we are going through trouble is this: "Do not fear." This is the message God gave to the exiles from Israel. Do not be afraid! That is the message the angel gave to Mary when he came to tell her she had been chosen to bear the Messiah. Do not fear! That is the message the angels gave the shepherds when they appeared to them proclaiming the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Do not be afraid. So said the angel in the empty tomb to Mary and the women when they came looking for Jesus' body after his crucifixion. Do not be afraid. That is God's message to each of us today. Do not fear!
And we respond with the Psalmist, who says so beautifully in Psalm 23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. (vs 4-6)
Let's pray ... Lord, help me today to trust You and leave the "why" with You and move on to the "what?". Please help me to see what You would have me do next. Thank you. I trust You to guide me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
