Proper 12
Notes
Transcript
The Light Breaks Through
The Light Breaks Through
The congregation will have courage in dark times because of God’s great and resilient promise
The first time I ever read Psalm 136 in Hebrew was in February of 2013. The Hebrew is not the hard but what is great and still somewhat difficult to believe about this Psalm is the refrain, “His steadfast Love endures forever.”
Today’s readings contain great stories of the steadfast love of God breaking through the darkness of life. In dark times we:
We appeal to the Character of God
We appeal to the History of God.
Ps 136 gives us both of these and it is revealed in both our Genesis Reading and our Gospel Reading
It seems the lectionary wants us to pay close attention to v. 6
to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Notice here: God’s history is that He provided ground, stability, a place to survive and flourish. His character is then portrayed in the common refrain His Steadfast love endures forever.
For us, in dark moments we pray either: that God will act in History OR that His Character will show us a path.
Noah
Noah
For almost 200 days Noah, his family and a ton of creatures were shut up in the ark. Now- most of you know, I am not an animal guy. Can you imagine, an Ark with all those animals in it. I mean- the stench. The humidity plus a lack of ventilation- it’s a miracle the first words of Noah aren’t THIS STINKS!
The absolute stifling darkness of the ark would have made it impossible to really think that there was ever going to be salvation.
Yet, this passage is recorded in History:
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
A rainbow requires light to shine. Have you ever had that moment of deliverance from darkness that brought you peace?
It doesn’t take much of a glance through Genesis 9 to establish that salvation is in both the History and Character of God.
In 9:11 God requires man to look at His character to establish a covenant that will effect the outcome of History:
I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God appeals for mankind to look at His trustworthiness as reassurance that the world will never be wiped out by floods.
Think about how Noah would have felt every time it started to rain. I bet he winced with every drop.
I’m sure over the last year many of us felt like Noah, locked up in a house with a family that may or may not stink. We still have moments where we see the proverbial cloud overhead, the mask mandate that crops up somewhere or a new variant and think, is this it?
Then there’s those of us who feel trapped in our own bodies. Either mentally or physically it seems as though our flesh is on a constant quest to betray us.
The Ghost in the Night
The Ghost in the Night
It was the disciples who thought that there was an absence of flesh on the water there to destroy them. Literally, they thought they saw a phantasma - a phantom. Jesus sent them away from the crowd that had been plaguing them- remember last week- they had no leisure even to rest.
Put yourself in the disciples shoes, you’ve been absolutely harangued by crowds for days on end now. You’ve just fed 5000 people and your boss is going to let you have a little quiet time by yourself on a boat. He’s going away. You get to just relax.
This is how I feel after we’ve had a ton of people over at the house. Grateful to hang out, also quite glad to just go to my own little corner - even if it means having to work to make a space to sit on my own.
but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out,
There’s a variety of people who have tried to explain what’s going on here. That Jesus is on shore and it just appears as though He’s on the water, that He’s on a sandbar, that He was some how involved in an early version of surfing…
I trust that we have to take Mark at His word:
for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
I believe that Jesus was on the water- more importantly I believe that He is light on the water. This is the nature of our God.
PAUSE
Church ever since the reformation about 500 years ago there has rightly been an abundance of emphasis on the death and resurrection of Christ.
The passages we have today should force us to rebalance the conversation in the direction that Christ had a body to even put onto the cross.
We no longer have just the sign of promise but the promise itself. We don’t just have mere symbols of God’s faithfulness - we have the faithfulness in Christ. Christ is not just an aberration or phantom, He is God incarnate and Immanuel. God with us.
He still comes to us. Take Eat, this is my Body.
Jesus says, ‘Take heart, it is I’ God doesn’t leave His promise unfulfilled. He gives Himself over to it. This is love.
Throughout my life in the last decade or so I’ve revisited the words of Psalm 136, almost always in the middle of the night. When Natalie was in the ICU for a week, I held onto this passage as she was comatose on Ambien. When Paul or Jack were sick and we’d wake up with them. When I was absolutely destitute from chronic illness and awake at 3AM. These words remain true.
His steadfast love will never end. This held true for Noah, for the Disciples, and now you dear friend.
The Lord loves you enough to be with you in the flesh, as does His church. I love you. We are glad God Himself is present with you.
In all darkness- there is light. It is the steadfast love of God in Christ. May you share His light with a weary world. Amen.