Clouded by the Presents
This is an excerpt from my sermon on Sunday. Our recurring them was "Lead on, Cloud of Presence: Life on the Road". Part of my imagery was contrasting two driving incidents I've had. One where I rolled my car and this other time.

My more recent brush with automobile peril ended more safely, but my mindset was different. I wasn't convinced that I would be fine. I knew I was capable of losing control. Despite the cold, dark night, I was ready to climb out of a broken car and get help. I knew that if I wiped out, it would be mostly my fault. I knew that I would face criticism from my girlfriend, my family, and likely some of you. My focus was on straightening out my car, but I knew that if I didn’t, life would go on.
Maybe it’s because this time my car had collision insurance. Maybe it’s because this was my second time through. Or maybe it was something else.

Earlier in the spring, my mechanic took my car out for a spin and told me that my transmission was on its last legs. I don’t know why I keep buying Fords. I knew that I couldn’t afford to buy a new car and I couldn’t afford to replace or rebuild a transmission. So when I got home and parked my car, I got out and walked around to the front, put my hand on the hood and said, “Look, I need you to keep working, so here’s the deal. I’ll drive gently, and I won’t rush you when you need to change gears, but I need you to hold out for a little while. When it’s time for you to give up, I’ll be okay with it.” I’m not making this up; I actually did say that. My mechanic said I’d be lucky if it lasted another month. That was a year and a half ago. Everyday since than has been a bonus.

What do we as human beings deserve from God? In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught the disciples to ask for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil. Everything beyond that is bonus, it’s unexpected, it’s grace.

The Israelites in the desert lost sight of that grace, they expected the unexpected and complained when their bonus wasn’t big enough. Standing at the Red Sea, the Israelites quickly forgot about the grace they had been given. Instead of turning their face toward God, they turned their face toward their troubles. They didn’t think God would save them, but they have forgotten that God had already saved them quite a few times, and would save them quite a few times again.

When your car loses control, you keep your wheels faced toward where you want to go. What I needed to do was forget about the car, forget the consequences. I needed to look away from things that were troubling me, and look toward where I wanted to go.

In our troubles, we need to turn ourselves toward where we want to go. We need to turn our face toward God. We need to focus our ears toward what God is saying, focus our eyes on what God is doing. We do that through prayer and meditation, through regular Bible reading, through giving of ourselves to those around us in need. It also means turning away from our fears, turning away from our material comforts, and turning away from our selfishness and discontent.

   [ posted by William @ 12:04 PM ]