Sermon - May 8, 2011
Near to the Heart: Wait
Psalm 46, Matthew 11:28-30
If by some quirk of cosmos, we could
travel back in time to the Middle Ages, we would be overcome by the
smell: horses, livestock, dogs, rats, raw sewage in the street gutters,
not to mention the population of infrequent bathers. If a person from
that time were transported to ours, what do you think would be most
offensive to them? NOISE.
We are immersed in noise: cars, machinery, television, various
media devices, cell phones. Think about it for a moment. When was the
last time you spent a truly quiet day – a day without noise of any kind?
Is there even an hour in wakeful lives without noise?
Silence is a gift of God, in
which to seek God, to hear God, and to know God. The Psalmist
acknowledges powerful forces in life: and exults in God who is a sure
source of strength and safe refuge. God is our refuge and strength,
and ever-present help in trouble. 46:1
Do you believe that? Do
you experience God's presence, safe haven and strength when you face
trouble? The Psalmist isn't making this up. This is a first hand report.
He is so confident in God as his refuge, strength and
ever-available help that he proclaims:
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains
fall in the heart of the sea. vs. 2
Thankfully, I have never
experienced an earthquake, but I know of people who have, several times.
What they describe is terrifying. There is no solid ground anywhere.
Everything heaves from under you or is falling around and on top of you.
The psalmist doesn't fear the earthquake. You don't have to live in
California to experience upheaval of the ground under your feet.
Betrayed by a friend, an unfaithful spouse, the death of a child, a
potentially terminal diagnosis can rock and split the ground you trust
while life as you knew it shatters and falls around and on top of you.
8 Though its waters roar
and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. vs.4 Have you
ever felt overwhelmed, defeated, helpless, hopeless? Debt can overwhelm.
It is like a bottomless pit with no ladder up and out. Finance charges
on top of finance charges mire and devour whatever payments can be made.
Bewildered, you think, how did I ever let this happen? How will I ever
dig my way out?
We can be overwhelmed by loss: grieving over a loved one, or
devastated by destruction. The
spirit of Iowans amazes me. Tornadoes whisked away silos, farm
buildings, homes, personal possessions. Folks count and mourn their
losses, comfort and support one another, and somehow manage to move on.
The Psalmist directs us through
all the natural and human disasters to a river whose streams make
glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High Dwells. vs. 4
For folks in the dry climes of the Mid East, a streaming river is a
great luxury of cooling refreshment and rest. I could use a vacation, a
little fishing maybe, some canoeing. If i't really hot, a quick swim. Is
it in Israel? I didn't see it in the tourist info. Where on earth would
such a place be? The Psalmist doesn't give us the coordinates. He does
tell us how to find it, but put away your Tom Toms, your Magellans,
and Garmin Nuvi. Here's the way - ready for this? Be still and know
that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in
the earth.
That's it. That is how to
find peace, cooling refreshment for our hot to trot living. Nothing
could be harder for us. Be still? How? There's bills to pay, people to
see, calls to make, projects to finish, fields to seed, gardens to
plant, the list is endless. Yes it is. Even if I halt all activity for,
say five minutes, which is a long time for most of us, my mind is still
in high gear thinking, planning, worrying about how and when I'll get it
all done. Yet God's Word stands: “Be still and know that I am God.”
This isn't the only place He says it. He has provided certain times
for silence: There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.
Ecclesiastes 3:22
God calls us to silence:
But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before
Him. Habakkuk. 2:20 And whether or not we welcome it, God promises
silence. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure
homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Is. 32:18
All of Heaven, normally a noisy place abounding with praise,
praise, and more praise, will offer an half hour of reverent adoring
silence. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour. Revelation. 8:1
God rewards those who lay
aside agendas, still their minds, quiet their hearts and wait upon Him.
They who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength,
they will soar on wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:31 Ever watch an
eagle soar? They seem to do so effortlessly, barely moving a wing, a
silhouette of grace in flight high above the earth. They navigate air
currents and thermals to lift and carry them -even over the most
dangerous terrain. Those who are still, come to know God, and wait upon
Him are surrendered to the currents and thermals of His Spirit to carry
them even through the toughest terrain. We receive power in His
presence: power to be, to do, and to soar.
Imagine going through your day, finding moments at a time to be still
and attentive to the Lord, listening for His direction, trusting His
perfect timing, knowing His love surrounding you, within you, supporting
you each step of the way. It sounds too good to be true, but we have
the Lord's Word on it!
Jesus Himself invites us, implores us to come to Him if we are weary
or heavy laden. Sometimes I get weary at the end of the day. Don't ask
me to go anywhere, call anybody or to anything no matter how small it
is. Too weary to watch TV, read, or even remember to take off my watch.
Jesus calls to all who are weary, make one more effort, a very small
effort, really only a decision, a glance in His direction: Come. Come to
Me.
Sometimes I'll stop at Food Pride on my way home. When I pull in the
drive, I have suitcase, and books, laptop satchel and purse on top of
four or five grocery bags to haul in. It's a load! But it is nothing
compared with a weight of guilt, or grief, resentment, anger,
bitterness, fear or a lethal combination of any and all of these. Jesus
says, Come, and I will give you rest. Rest? You mean freedom from
annoyances, pesky people and nuisance? Freedom from demands,
obligations, work? That kind of kick your feet up, break out the nachos,
and chill out rest? Not quite.
The Lord bids us to make an exchange
with Him. Our weariness for His yoke. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for
your souls. As the son of a carpenter, Jesus would know all about
making yokes.
Just as in saddles one size
won't fit all horses, yoke that tethered oxen together to a cart had to
be custom fitted so as not to chaff or injure the animal. One ox could
not be fitted with another ox's yoke, but had its own. The yoke Jesus
has loving prepared to tether each soul with Himself for His work is
custom fitted. I cannot do, what He calls you to do. You cannot do what
your neighbor is called to do, but only what Christ has prepared for you
to do. How do you know what that is? By prayerfully studying His Word,
and coming to Him in silence, draw near to His heart and learn from the
best.
So with all the rewards and benefits of yielding to the Lord –
direction and power to live, fully receiving His love, yielding to His
Holy Spirit which is the grand river that streams into the City, the
Presence of God Himself, what keeps us from turning off the TV, laying
aside the paper, foregoing the extra cup of coffee to be still to know
Him.
We resist solitude. We are
afraid of being lonely, forgotten, or abandoned. Left to oneself, what
is there to do? If I'm not doing something, how do I justify the time?
There's the fear of the dark side. What lurks there? Alone with
ourselves, we will discover within us things we don't want to see. There
are ungainly, ugly judgmental or critical attitudes, some dishonesty and
hypocrisy, issues of anger or jealousy. Pride is big this year. But God
who loves you and craves intimacy with you, already knows those things,
and Jesus stands in the silence to forgive and heal.
In that deep stillness
before God, perhaps we fear meeting God Himself, His pronouncement of
judgment upon our sins, His chastisement and punishment, His wrath and
fury. Or perhaps we fear that His greatness, His fiery pure holiness
will consume us. It's unworldly to be totally silent listening for God.
Monks do that in cloisters, and maybe an occasional minister not
farmers, or school teachers, bank tellers, or teenagers
So we keep God way up front,
by the altar, in Church, where we can safely visit an hour a week,
rather than bring Him home to our hearts to roost, and route out all our
comfy cozy presumed notions of what it is to be a faithful Christian.
But do you really want that weariness, that burden?
Wouldn't it be wonderful to soar on the wings of the Spirit
in the love of Christ to accomplish more than you can humanly do on your
own. To surrender your agenda, to yield your heart mind and soul, to the
perfect peace of those whose minds are stayed on God. If this were
heaven you would be with Jesus every nano second of eternity.
Wouldn't it be worth it to know,
experience, trust His loving presence with you every moment of every
day, every week of every year to come here on earth! Imagine what it
might be like to live consciously close to the Heart that loves you
beyond all imagining.
“There is a place of quiet
rest, near to the heart of God.
A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. O Jesus,
blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before
thee, near to the heart of God.”
This week, take up the Lord's invitation, find a time, and place, to
be still and begin to truly know your God. He waits for you. Amen
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