|
October 7th, 2007—19th Sunday after Pentecost
Readings: Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26 (canticle) or Ps 137;
2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
Taking pause to give thanks: ‘It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord’
A true story out of San Francisco: A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller's window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said, "OK" and left. He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.
We can all laugh at this man’s folly, and perhaps even feel that his title as “Idiot #3” on the “Idiots of 2004 list” is appropriate. But it’s strange isn’t it the anxiety that arises as one waits in line. Some of you are probably like me when it comes to waiting in line—we approach the check-outs with a keen eye as to which line looks shortest, making a decision to take the checkout with only two customers. Then if other lines start moving quicker we second guess our decision, perhaps even jumping lines to try to get through those few moments sooner!
Or maybe you’re like me and many other men that just can’t stand watching commercials on television. We have to have about three shows on the go at the same time (usually two of them involving sports) so that when one goes on commercials we can flip to one of the other options. And look out for those times when all three programs are on commercial break at the same time!
Waiting is not something our culture does well. We Anglicans like our liturgy crisp, our sermons short, and our service times to remain constant. And when these things change, we’re not too happy. I imagine much of our impatience stems from our incredibly hectic society where one’s quality of life seems to be measured by how ‘busy’ we are. “Keeping busy?” we might ask as we greet friends we haven’t seen for a while…and if the answer is ‘yes’, then we might find ourselves saying something like, “Well that’s good, it’ll keep you out of trouble.”
Sounds strange when we really think about it, doesn’t it? Since when did busyness become a virtue? Since when did a stressful existence become one of life’s merit badges?
God’s Word to us today says, “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
Our canticle we heard this morning is taken from the book of Lamentations—from its very name we ought to be cued to the fact that this is not a happy book. Tradition has attributed its authorship to Jeremiah, the one known as the ‘weeping prophet’ for his dire prophecies regarding his beloved and anguished people. The book of Lamentations is just that: the author laments about how terrible life has become for God’s people. They have been conquered by their enemies, their cities besieged, people are going hungry, and it’s become an “every man for himself/ survival of the fittest” kind of place.
Yet right in the middle of this story the author is able to gather himself; refusing to be swallowed up in the stress and misery around him. One Bible translates verses 19-21 like this: “I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there’s one thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope.”
I remember the good times and the bad in my life. I remember times of doubt, cynicism and pain…and I also remember times of great joy, freedom, and peace. Often time these two stages in my life would be connected.
When I first read Lamentations 3 I had just come out of a difficult time in adolescent life. I was 16 years old and I felt it was about time that I had a girlfriend. I’d been waiting for what seemed like an eternity…because I was actually an anomaly among other boys my age because I’d always had an eye for the cute girls in my class, going all the way back to kindergarten. My parents had discouraged me from dating, and there never seemed to be any ‘good Christian’ girls around anyways (and as a preacher’s kid this was very important of course!) Well, I finally got tired of waiting, and in spite of my convictions or pressures put on me I decided to pursue this very cute, and very blond, Polish girl from my school.
We flirted, we’d walk part-way home together, and on and on it went. I felt guilty because I knew she didn’t share my faith and at the time I felt God would not be happy with me for that. So then I got angry at God for that one…it wasn’t fair he’d give me these feelings and then frustrate them! If this was what it meant to be a Christian then I decided I didn’t want anything to do with it. I chased my girl and forgot about God for a while. I stopped praying, reading my Bible…and more and more I began to do things in my life I never used to because I decided I would live my life the way I wanted to.
Well, it started a cycle of doubt and despair. I lost my focus, my centre and purpose in life…and eventually it made me miserable. And to top it all off? I never even ended up dating the girl I had been chasing.
When I finally came to my senses it was at youth camp that summer. God blessed me with many wonderful sermons aimed straight at me, powerful worship times, and meaningful, lengthy prayer times with my friends and counselor. We’d sometimes stay after the evening service and pray for hours together…because we were desperate for God’s presence, peace, and love in our lives.
A few weeks after camp I got a call from my counselor. With all seriousness he told me he’d been praying and felt that God wanted him to tell me to read Lamentations 3 and to take it to heart. I opened it up and read the verses—I thought it was quite a neat passage, but it didn’t particularly grip me at the time.
What I would later realize is that this passage became the first passage I would turn to when my life seemed out of sorts. It was the first message I needed to hear when life seemed miserable and when stresses seemed too great. It still reminds me of that time in my life when God showed up powerfully to bring me great hope and peace.
“Yet this I recall to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
God never tires of showing us his faithfulness…of reaching us with his loving presence. The problem is that we don’t often take the time to stop and recognize that God is present with us. We don’t often ‘recall to mind’ those times where God has been faithful to us.
We are rarely disciplined enough to take the time to “wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” So this morning I’d like us to do something a little different. I’d like us to take the time to sit and wait quietly on the Lord.
At Remembrance Day we take a moment of silence where we remember the sacrifices our soldiers paid for our freedom…well this morning I want us to take a period of silence to ‘recall to mind’ the ways in which God met us in our pain. The times when we could not doubt the Lord’s goodness. And when we do this may we be inspired to give thanks for all that God has blessed us with. May we remember our salvation, may we reflect on the gift of friendship and family, and may be ever mindful of those things God gives us that we often take for granted.
“Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God my Father. Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy Hand hath provided. Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me!”
|
|
