First Baptist Cornelia is beginning a new spiritual initiative called Walking by Faith. During the month of January, I am preaching a sermon series as the foundation for this initiative. Here's the first installment.
Date: Sunday, January 8, 2012
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
Series: Walking by Faith #1
Sermon
Fear of the Future
On Sunday, January 9th, 2011 – I stood on this platform – in front of all of you and made a bold warning. The weather reports had confirmed that a blizzard would arrive over the coming night. The temperature was dropping quickly, the precipitation was moving in from the West. It was not a question of if it would snow – rather how much.
Our transplanted coastal family had been watching the news with eager excitement. Snow was coming and we couldn’t wait. So – during my welcome expressions during worship – I gleefully pronounced the coming of the snow and warned everyone to be safe. “Ice and snow are slippery,” I said, “so, let’s all come back next week in one piece.”
And you know the rest of the rest of the story. On Sunday, January 16, I walked out of the side door like I do every Sunday with a cast and sling on my right arm. At the exact same place in worship – during our welcome moments – I stood before you, looking around for any other visible signs of ailments or mishaps – and painfully pronounced my sledding injury as the one tragedy of the week of snow.
And – I love you all – the best part about this – you cheered me on in my recovery – and now joyfully – have decided to never let me live it down! When it snowed a few flakes back in December – I lost count of the number of reminders to be careful on the sledding hill this year!
Here’s my point – from one Sunday to the next – we cannot predict the future. We can walk away from worship in one state and we walk back into to worship the next in a completely different place in life.
Think back to January 1, 2011: These were the top headlines in the world:
1. A Coptic Christian Church in Egypt
a. Big news – except no one in the world imagined that within 30 days Egypt
2. Russian plane exploded in Siberia killing 3 people.
a. Who knew that before the year was out – Russian would experience its largest anti-government protests of its history as it prepared to vote on Putin again.
3. North Korea called for Peace on the Korean Peninsula
a. Who knew the present dictator would be dead by the next year and replaced with his young son with many questions of stability and safety for the year ahead.
On your worship guides – I’ve given you a spiritual exercise related to this idea of the future as an unpredictable unknown.
1. What was happening in your life on January 1, 2011? What would have been your news headline?
(What was life like? Who were the important people in your life? What were you looking forward to? What were your NY resolutions?
2. What about this year – January 1, 2012? What has changed? Who is in your life that wasn’t here last year? Who’s not?
· Like the news headlines from 2011 – I imagine many things have happened over the last year that you never could have predicted on January 1st.
3. So – what about January 1, 2013 – one year into the future from today? Is there anything we can predict for 2013 for our nation and world?
· This time next year we’ll be preparing for a presidential inauguration – with the news filled about cabinet members and a new congress.
· We’ll be eating at Chick-fil-a more often
· This time next year we’ll be once again feel bloated from a December of parties and food.
· Some of us will not be here this time next year. Some of us will be grieving next year over those who are not here.
Friday when I performed Mrs. Betty Miller’s funeral I said, “The only future certainty we have about in our external lives is change.”
Change happens – this is what scares most about the future. We cannot control the change and we cannot control the future. We cannot stop change from happening from our bodies or our lives or our churches. Because of this fear of the future – we do our best to stop change wherever we can. This is one the reasons I think folks of all ages resist change in church – it’s the one place in our lives we hope we can force to remain the same – the way we’ve always remembered it. Singing the same songs as when we were in our teens and 20’s. Having the same programs as when we thought the church its strongest. It’s one way of bringing order to a changing world – to a future that feels scary.
I remember conversations I had about the future when I was in my twenties. I described the future as a black veil in front of my face. As I looked into the future – I saw blackness. I didn’t know what kind of minister I would be or where I would be or what kind of preparation I would have. I knew I was called into ministry – but there was so much uncertainty. I found myself at times paralyzed in fear. Wanting more answers. My only hope I had was trusting in the God who called me to follow him.
God of the future
In our scripture passage today from 2 Corinthians, Paul admonishing the Corinthians to look beyond the present difficulties of their lives to see God’s greater realities. “Verse – 16: So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. “ Our world is changing. Our bodies no longer are able to do the things they once did. All of our physical life is dimensioning – but hold on – there’s something more – God is renewing our inner lives day by day.
While all we see is change in the world – God’s transcendent power is at world – recreating, redeeming, restoring.
“What we see is temporary – for what we cannot be seen is eternal.”
These verses point to one of my favorite images of God: God as the Master Weaver.
We live in this temporary world looking forward into the darkness of tomorrow – never knowing what the future holds. We are afraid of the changes that will come our way; paralyzed by the possibilities; unable to choose one direction or the other. At the same time - God stands just inside the darkness of the future weaving his purposes into our lives.
Rather than causing every event, every decision that happens in life – like a Puppet master – God takes the every day small and large decisions our lives – our sins as we well as our holy moments – creating a masterpiece of our lives. God’s will becomes not some crap shoot that we have to do our best to try and decipher the exact best decision – instead God’s will gets woven in our lives as we listen and respond to his leading in our lives.
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. “ Paul tells us in 5:1
Our lives become like the great Oriental rug found in an Egyptian bazaar. The western travel winds his way through the great bazaar filled with people from around the world. Soon – he becomes transfixed on the work of an ancient, master weaver at work in his stall. The rug hangs form the ceiling as he completes the final touches. The Western looks perplexed, though. He is amazed at the work of the Master Weaver – but bewildered by the rug itself. Rather than a thing of beauty as he expects, the rug looks disjointed, asymmetrical, and unattractive. He cannot believe the master weaver would actually sell this rug.
Soon – the traveler’s curiosity gains the better of him. He gets the weaver’s attention and in the sign language of cross cultural communication around world asks him about the rug. Soon, the weaver’s frown turns into a bright and glowing smile as he recognizes the traveler’s question. He motions for him to follow him to the back of the stall. There hanging from the roof is the other side of the rug the weaver has been creating. But from this side – the front – the picture completely changes. What the traveler took as disjointed, asymmetrical and unattractive comes together in the greatest, most beautiful pattern he has ever seen. Every stitch, ever color, ever seem has been used with purpose to create a true masterpiece.
This is what Paul is trying to get across to the Corinthians and to us – There are at lot things in this world that do not make sense. Things seem disjointed, asymmetrical and unattractive when we see them from our earthy perspective. “In this tent,“ Paul says, “we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.”
But God has so much more for us. God is creating a masterpiece with our lives – that we will only be able to appreciate when the chains of this world are removed and he beacons us to the back to of the stall to see the true pattern and beauty of his creation.
The future lies before us. Unknown. Black. Scary. But inside that future – God resides – weaving his story – his pattern – his purpose – his plans into our lives – as individuals and as a church.
The question we bring to the scripture is this – how to do we get a glimpse of this masterpiece? How do we live into the future with the confidence of the patterns God is weaving?
Walking into the Future
Paul says, in verse 7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight!” We can live with confidence in 2012 and beyond when we choose to allow our lives to be shaped and formed by this simple – yet difficult – way of life.
To walk by faith – not by sight means:
1. We acknowledge God – the Master Weaver – is weaving something beyond our understanding. There is more to this world than what we see. There is another side of the rug.
2. We trust God. Inherit in walking by faith is trusting in God to lead the way. We do not know the future – but we trust in the God who weaves our future. This requires us to grow in spiritual maturity. To trust God is weaving something out our present reality even when the things we see do not make sense.
3. What we see will not always make sense. What we see is our world changing – people no longer making church their priority, the church programs and denominations which we once held as sacred are longer meeting the needs of the world or community, our younger generations are deciding on lives away from the church and Jesus. This is what we see – but to walk by faith means – we trust God is still at work, still weaving, still creating. Our challenge is to see where God is working – where he is weaving – and join him.
How do we live in a world where the future remains a mystery and believe in a God who invites us to join him in the future? We walk by Faith, not by sight. We develop it as a way of life as individuals and as a church.
Over the next month – you will hear a great deal about the spiritual initiative we are calling Walking by Faith. A brochure has been sent to your home, we are hosting town hall meetings over the next two Sundays during Sunday School, and we will have a commitment Sunday at the end of the month.
At the heart of all the information is this one simple statement: We want to God to develop us as People of God who choose to Walk by Faith, Not by sight. Into A People of God who are growing in trust of one another and God. Into A People of God who are spiritually prepared for the future God brings. Into A People of God who when they look back on the next years of our existence see the masterpiece God has woven through our lives in this world.
Recently, I read a book about a young woman’s Appalachian Trail thru-hike experience called Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis. She described the moment that her father drove her up to Unicoi Gap up above Helen to drop her off. He gave her a kiss, she put on her pack and she started walking up – out of the gap – into the unknown. Soon, she was out of sight of her father, unaware of what was come around ever bend – but trusting in her Heavenly Father as she walked by Faith – not by sight.
The current of God is moving inside First Baptist Corenlia. The 125 years of our history has dropped us at this moment on January 8th, 2012. It is our time to push off into the currents of God’s spirit – walk out of the Gap and into God’s future for this church and for us. This month – let me invite to spend time in prayer about this spiritual initiative. To ask questions about the details. To listen for God’s movement. And then – let us all commit to Walk by Faith, not by Sight. Amen!
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