Sermon - February 28, 2010

Mourners and Meekers
Isaiah 61:1-6, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, Matthew 5:4-5 

    Grief is ghastly. It curls your insides. You feel like the bottom of your soul has fallen out and the weight of world has crushed  down on you. If some one you love has died, their irreplaceable presence is leaves a gaping void. In the wake of disaster such as fire, flood,  tornado, or earthquake, all that is left in the debris is a sense of devastation and despair. Grief is when the pain of hunger in your stomach is exceeded only by the pain in your heart for your starving child. Or your baby is barely breathing in ICU.  A trusted friend and co-worker betrays you, leveling a mortal blow to your friendship, trashing your faith in the goodness of people  When someone you cherish commits a terrible wrong, an invisible knife twists in your heart down through your gut.
    That is grief. It's not pretty. It is tear-streaked ugly, weeping, wailing, gut- wrenching, soul heaving, soot black raw emotion. In the last, when bodily strength cannot sustain another wail, another tear, un-consoled grief dissipates to a moan, then a  whimper, a featureless gaze, and a bitter heart. We know this first hand. Then how can Jesus say “Blessed, happy, blissful, fortunate are those that mourn?” For crying out loud, how can anything so humanly torturous be blessed of God?
    Good grief, Charlie Brown, there is no goodness in grief itself – only where we take our grief – to whom we take our grief. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. The blessing is in the comfort of God. When God comforts, it is all good.
   We have a detailed picture of God's comfort in Isaiah 61; vs. The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. If you are truly poor, like most of the world's population, good news is survival, life.  God's comfort brings to life what was dead or dying. Food and water to victims of earthquakes, is good news. Shelter from the elements is good news.  Clothing and medicine is good news. Sharing our abundance is good news.
     Last Sunday we understood how pride keeps us from God.  We remembered that apart from Christ we have nothing.  To the poor in spirit, God's comfort is good news. Christ brings to every heart aware of its need of Him, good news, He is with us, He will not forsake us, and He is fitting us to live in His kingdom forever.
   Isaiah 61 vs. 1 continues  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.  Grief-stricken people are brokenhearted, they have lost their spirit, their joy, their raison d'etre, their reason for living. But God promises comfort that will bind them up, His mercy wound around them like a healing bandage, a splint or a brace, until they become strong.  When I broke my leg and was sent to the emergency room in the hospital in Marshalltown, the leg had already swollen too much, and I was too far from home for the doctor to put my leg in a cast. So she immobilized it in a surrounding brace to keep it from further fracture until my appointment in Sioux City five days later. By then the swelling went down, and the fracture had stayed in place. God's comfort to the brokenhearted holds them, braces them, avoiding further injury so they can begin to heal.
    To proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners.  While Chris was in Iran, and now while he is Afghanistan, I try not to think of the horrors my son would suffer if he were captured. But there are mothers and fathers, who have known their sons and daughters were in the hands of the enemy: both in the physical realm and the spiritual realm. God promised comfort is proclaimed freedom and release.  God's Word is certain and ultimate: As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. We are to claim His truth and stand on it. Live by it.
   God is very specific about His promise;  Isaiah 61 Verse 2: to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. I rely on that verse so much that I enscribed it on the walls of my dressing closet. So every morning when I dress for the day, I put on the garments of praise. The oil of gladness is the fellowship and the power of the Holy Spirit.
    This is the great exchange.  When you receive a Christmas gift that is not the right size or the wrong color, you can take it to the store and exchange it for something more suitable. God offers the greatest exchange policy on earth.  For example: WalMart says “exchange something of equal value.” But God says, “I'll give you beauty if you'll bring me the ashes!”  Walmart says “Exchange for anything you want.”  But God says, “I'll exchange if you'll live for Me.”  Walmart says, “You can only exchange what was bought at our store.” God says, “I'll exchange, it doesn't matter where you got messed up.”
   God reaches over the counter and says, “Bring me your sadness, I'll give you My joy. Bring me your problems, I'll give you true solutions.  Bring Me the things you don't understand, I will give you peace that surpasses all understanding.  Bring me your brokenness, I will give you grace that is all-sufficient. Bring Me your wanderings, I will give your life meaning. Bring Me your ashes, have I got something beautiful for you!
    For all of our grief, the sorrow that God most gladly comforts, is our sorrow over our sin. When we realize how greatly God loves us, and how our disobedience, lack of trust, and rebelliousness grieves Him, we come to hate sin in ourselves and eagerly confess anything that separates us from our Lord, from God's presence, from the joy of being in fellowship with Jesus. If you've ever had a falling out with a dear friend, you know the heart-ache of that broken relationship. Would you not do whatever you could to be reconciled, and good friends once again?  How much more so, with out relationship to Christ, who died for us!  When I confess and am truly sorrowful for having grieved my loving Father and great King, God runs the distance to fill the gap between us with His love, forgiveness and comfort for the sake of His Son, Jesus.
   When Jesus was asked to read the Scriptures in the Synagogue in Nazareth – the place where He grew up – He read this very passage from Isaiah 61, sat down, and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” It made the leaders so angry to hear Him infer that He was the anointed one, the messiah. They ran Him out of town and attempted to push Him off a cliff.! He passed through their midst unharmed. Today Jesus is the one appointed by the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord to preach good news to the poor, bind the brokenhearted, and proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners. He is our comfort. It is the Spirit of Christ that speaks through us.
   The Apostle Paul sought  to encourage the Church in Corinth which was heaving under persecution.  He writes: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. When we go to God for comfort we are going to the top of the line: first of all because He is the Father of compassion, the originator. Compassion, or feeling one's sufferings as one's own, began with God. Secondly, God is not particular in giving comfort. God  desires to comfort us: in sickness, in pain, in sorrow, in grief, in loss, in anquish, betrayal – in all circumstances.  Should we suffer because we have disobeyed God's Word, if we turn to our Lord and truly confess our sin, He will forgive, comfort and heal us. Remember, we are His own, His children. Not that we deserve such mercy, we don't, but God's nature is to give it.
    Blessed, happy, blissful, fortunate are those who mourn, not because they mourn, but because God will comfort with tenderness, mercy and grace.  Grief acknowledges our powerlessness and when we come to God in that vulnerability, He gives us strength. At the time of Moses' death, when Joshua was appointed to lead the children of Israel out of the wilderness across the Jordan, into the promised land, God comforts the young leader in mourning: “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” Joshua 1: 6  With God's comfort, in His presence, there is inexpressible joy.
    Poor in spirit, with all humility, we recognize our dependence upon God in Christ Jesus. In mourning not only our own sufferings, but with the sufferings of others, and for our grieving God, we find comfort from the Father of all comfort. Forgiven, comforted, and free, we know our place before God.
    Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Jesus' first hearers must have been dumbfounded by this beatitude. By world's standards, meekness is weakness. It's being all nicey-nice, timid, fearful, lacking self-confidence. Someone who will compromise to gain peace at any cost is considered meek.
    Not according to the Bible. The Bible shows us people who were meek were not door mats by any means.  And people who are born naturally shy, gentle natured, may not necessarily be meek. Meekness is not a biological trait, but a by-product of  being “poor in spirit”.  It is closely related with true humility. Accompanied by  love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness is a fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22.  There it is listed as “self-control.”   According to the Bible, meekness is being yielded to God's will, and not yielding to unrighteousness or compromising with evil. God-given meekness will stand up for God-given principles. When God's honor is being degraded, meekness will have a zeal that is fire-brand hot. No great saint of God was ever a sissy!
   Moses was a man described in the Bible as being “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” Num. 12:3 Yet, on the strength of the Word of the Lord, Moses stood up against Pharoah, King of the most powerful nation of his time. Moses  led the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness to the foot of Sinai where he ascended the mountain to receive the Law, the Ten Commandments.  When he returned to camp he found people of God worshiping and dancing around an idol – a golden calf. Moses was greatly angered, threw down the tablets of Law, had the calf ground into powder, put it in water, and made the people drink it. Moses was no casper milk-toast.  In Moses we see Bible-based meekness is toward God. Moses was sensitive to the will of God, despite the will of the people. Yielded to God,  he was unwilling to yield a principal of righteousness or compromise evil. That is true meekness.
   The paramount example of meekness is Jesus who said of Himself, I am meek and lowly in heart.” yet made a scourge, overturned tables, scattered sheep and birds, and “chased money-changers our of the temple court.”  Jesus' meekness was toward God, for this same Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed, “Not my will but thine be done” Lk. 22:42 Fully yielded to God, Jesus was unwilling to yield a principal of righteousness or compromise with evil.
    Meekness is the opposite of self-assertiveness and pride. It is an attitude of heart, the  believing soul yielded to the Lord.  The meek have no need to defend themselves, because God is their fortress and their stronghold. The meek are not weak: quite the contrary, meekness is great power under restraint.  Meekness is courageous to communicate the Word of the Lord without compromise, but is humble so as not to appear arrogant and proud.  The meek, who bow humbly before God and courageously against world's injustice. To the poor in spirit, Jesus says, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  To the meek, is promised the inheritance of the earth -future tense, prophesy yet to be fulfilled. The meek will be on the front lines in the biggest takeover in the history of the world.  Rm. 8:17  Now if we are children, then we are heirs -heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.  According to Revelation 21:7 the earth the meek will inherit will be the new earth established by Christ when He comes in final victory and glory: He who over comes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
   Hear again the words of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 61:4  They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated;  they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. .
   Are you willing to make that exchange with God and become a mourner and meeker for Jesus' sake?  Then prepare to get blessed.

     

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