Seeing God At Work In Your Life

February 24, 2010 -- Second Mid-Week Lenten Service

As is our custom during these Wednesdays of Lent we read from the Crucifixion History compiled from the Gospels. Tonight we begin where Jesus had just celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples and predicted Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. Our Gospel Lesson for tonight from Luke Chapter 22 talks about the events that occurred after they finished celebrating the Lord’s Supper; Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives, to a place called the Garden of Gethsemane, a place where He spent a lot of time in prayer.  

Gospel – Luke 22:39-52  Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?: he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them  He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour – when darkness reigns.”

Sermon –

So often people say, “I don’t understand why this is happening. What’s going on?” Why is God doing this? Why is this happening to me?” We need to be able to make some sense out of life so that we can help others make sense out of life. That’s why during this Lenten Season we are doing a seven-part series titled Making Sense Out Of Life.  

The principle from Week One that helps us make some sense out of life is: GOD IS ALWAYS AT WORK AROUND YOU and that His purpose is to each of us into a PEG – a Person Experiencing God. Last Sunday, Week Two of our series, the principle that we talked about that helps us make some sense out of life is: GOD PURSUES A CONTINUING LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU THAT IS REAL and PERSONAL. The concept of “continuing” is important because God doesn’t stop, He continuously pursues both a real and personal love relationship with you. Last Sunday we talked about just how God pursues, what that love relationship is like, and that He’s going after all of us for good reasons and for good purpose – to bless us. A lot of people don’t like it when God pursues them, but His pursuit is a good thing because He pursues to bless.

Tonight we want to finish this thought and talk about how God’s love relationship with us is real and it is personal. And to start our discussion on this, do you realize that every day you are being pursued; that every time you go to the mailbox you are being pursued? In your mailbox there is always way too much junk mail – or Bulk Business Mailings (BBM’s) as people in the Post Office like to call it. We get these BBM’s because people are pursuing you, they want to reach out to you, they want you to know they exist, they want your business, and they want you to be involved in various things.

Tonight I brought some of my BBM’s along. This first one is addressed to Religious Leader, Trinity Lutheran Church, 100 Maple Avenue. Is this company pursuing me in a real and personal way? Not at all! And I remember a mailing I received a couple of years ago from Concordia Publishing House. It was addressed to The Reverend Mrs. James Berryman! Was Concordia Publishing House pursing me in a real and personal way? Not at all! They didn’t even know who I was even though I’m on their clergy roster. When I get mailings addressed to Mr. and Mrs. James Berry, do they even know who I am? That’s not real or personal! 

But here’s a nice BBM I received. Concordia Publishing House has changed their ways because this one is addressed to The Reverend James Berry, 100 Maple Avenue. This one is personal; Concordia Publishing House is now pursuing me in a real and personal way! I also have a full-page advertisement is from the Milk Producers Association; they want you to drink milk. Is this advertisement real and personal, are they saying that we have milk for you, that we want you personally to try the product? No, this ad was designed for everyone, there’s absolutely nothing personal about it.

A lot of times we think that just because there are Bibles all over the place that God does mass mailings, that there’s nothing personal there for us at all. It’s like God does a mass mailing with the Bible pursuing everyone. We often forget that the Bible was brought to you personally by God because He is pursuing you in a real and personal way and let me give you an example.

Not everyone has a Bible, listen to this story: “The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association was doing a Book Fair in Moscow since the Soviet Union had opened sparingly to religion. The authorities had granted the publishers reluctant permission to hand out a limited number of Russian language New Testaments and long lines of people waited to receive a copy. When the supplies were exhausted one desperately disappointed man asked if he could have one of the empty boxes that once held the New Testaments. Someone protested, “But there’s nothing in those boxes, they’re empty. All the Bibles are gone!” With tears glistening in his eyes, he replied, “Then I at least want the box.” The Bible was so precious to that man that he treasured the cardboard box that had once held those New Testaments. That man didn’t have a Bible. We have Bibles, and if you don’t have one, there are Bibles in the Fellowship Hall and we’ll give you one! God has pursued us, He has made sure that you have not only the New Testament, but you have the entire Bible.

A lot of times people just get a page out of the Bible. Here I have a copy of John 3:16, the heart of the Gospel, “God so loved you that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, that if you believe in Him you will not perish, but have everlasting life.” But when you look closely at this page, you can see that it’s written in the Greek Language, we can’t read this, nothing on this page makes sense to us. But you have the Bible in your own language. God pursued you; He has given you the whole Bible and He has given it to you in your language. He pursued you in a way that is both real and personal; He’s going after us. What a great God!

When you were baptized, the Pastor didn’t just say to you, “You’re baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen”, he said your name; he spoke your name personally because God reaches out to you personally. Other people can’t believe for you; I can’t believe for you, your parents, family, or friends can’t believe for you – it’s you who has to believe. That means at your baptism God pursued you personally giving you the Holy Spirit so that you would believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Isaiah 43:1 says, “Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine!” God called you personally; He pursued you in a way that was both real and personal. 

Last Sunday we talked a little bit about this because we had Holy Communion. When Jesus arranged communion, He could have said, “This bread symbolizes My body, this wine symbolizes My blood and is a reminder that they were given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” and left it at that. But He didn’t say that. Or, He could have planned it so that only the Pastor took the bread and wine symbolizing your forgiveness but He didn’t do that either. He said that the bread really is His body and the wine really is His blood and you are the one who receives it! You get Holy Communion, He gives it to you, it’s personal! Holy Communion is God pursuing you in a way that is real and personal.

So with these three things in mind, when we look at those portions of life that just don’t make sense, when life is so confusing, we   have to stop and remember that it’s God who is at work.   He is always at work around us, even in the circumstances when sin causes everything to go bad. God is still there, He doesn’t pick up and leave, He is still at work in those circumstances as devastatingly terrible as they may be. God not only pursues you through the Bible, through your Baptism, and through Holy Communion, He pursues you through circumstances in life drawing you to Himself.

Now with this in mind, let’s look at one of those confusing circumstances in life, that man in Russia who desperately wanted a Bible. We may look at that and wonder what God is doing; we know that God certainly could have supplied him with a Bible! We might think that we just can’t make any sense out of it and come to the conclusion that God is very confusing. But do you know what that story is about? It’s about God pursuing people like you and me; He just used that man in Russia to do it. What that story does is give us a reality check. After hearing that story we know how fortunate we are to have a Bible – and we even have Bibles in several translations with study notes and prayers - not everyone has that! And we don’t have just the New Testament, we have the entire Bible! That’s God pursuing you.

The Bible also says that when you seek God with all your heart, as that gentleman in Russia was doing, you are going to find Him because He’s also pursuing you. Now we take it on faith that God, who does what is right, eventually gave that man a Bible but just remember that through those circumstances in that man’s life,   God was pursuing you and me just to remind us how fortunate we are to have a Bible, an entire Bible in a language that we can read.

This week I was thinking back to my college years when I was attending the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. I had wanted a single room but they were all booked up so I was on the waiting list. I had a roommate who was rather difficult and I remember thinking to myself, “God, why me? Why me? All my other friends have decent roommates and are friends with them. Why do I have this difficult roommate?” I remember one night about eleven o’clock at night I said, “I just can’t do this anymore. God help me.” The next morning there was a note from the Housing Department in my mailbox saying a single room had become available and I could move in immediately.

So what was God doing by giving me a difficult roommate? He was pursuing a continuing love relationship with me that was both real and personal because when I stood there outside my mailbox and read the notice from the Housing Department, I said, “Wow!!! God really was aware of what happened at eleven o’clock last night! God did hear my prayer! He answered!!!” That would not have happened if I had not had that difficult roommate.

So as you try to make sense out of all these situations in life, all these difficult things that happen that we don’t understand, stop and remember that God is always at work around you.   Look at it from the perspective that God is always at work, even in those difficult circumstances and that He is pursuing a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal. And when you remember that, life begins to make sense. Amen.

Prayer -  

Heavenly Father, we come to You this evening and thank You that You are always reaching out to us. You use the Word and Sacraments to do it and You also use circumstances in life to draw us to you. Help us to remember that during the difficult times and in the good times, You are pursing us and You are pursuing us to bless us. May Your Spirit bring that to our mind. And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.