2nd Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2016
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians
3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35
Do
you ever find yourself waiting for the other shoe to drop? Waiting for the next bad thing to
happen? Waiting for the next problem to
occur? Or having heard of two deaths,
and remembering the saying that “death comes in threes,” even find yourself waiting
for the next person to die? Anyone? [Ask
for a show of hands.] We spent this weekend waiting for the next person to
catch the 24 hour stomach bug, which is why I’m the only one at church this
morning. I caught it first, on Friday,
then Emily, then Isabel, and we spent Saturday waiting to see who would be
next. This is a waiting that’s
expectant, you know it’s coming, yet you dread it at the same time. “Waiting
for the other shoe to drop” means you’ve already heard the first shoe drop, and
since shoes come in pairs, you’ve heard one fall, and you’re waiting for the
second one, knowing that it’s coming, and it’s just a matter of time. You’re awaiting something that you expect to
happen, since in your mind you link it to another event that you’ve already witnessed. And when you find yourself in that place of
waiting for the other shoe, what do you do?
How do you deal with your worries about what’s coming next? In the church and in our Scriptures this
morning we find some good advice.
First,
in the church calendar, we observed Ash Wednesday eleven days ago, and that’s
the signal that Easter is coming. And
what do we do with Easter coming? We prepare for it. That’s what the season of Lent is all
about. We get ready for Easter, we
prepare to celebrate again Jesus’ resurrection and victory over death. We have inserts about ordering Easter flowers
to get our sanctuary ready. [PG: We have
midweek Lenten services to add another opportunity for worship to get our
hearts and souls ready.] We’re adding a prayer of confession each week, as Lent
is a time to turn back towards God, in whatever areas of our life that we’ve
turned away, or perhaps areas we never fully gave over to God to start
with. Lent is about getting ready for
Resurrection Sunday. In the early
church, they’d hold off on baptisms until Easter, so that new believers could
claim new birth along with Christ’s new birth and resurrection, and they spent
Lent in catechism classes, something like our confirmation classes today. It was a serious business to get ready. Ash Wednesday has passed, therefore Easter is
coming. Another example of preparation
is during a pregnancy. You find out
you’re pregnant, and you start preparing for the new baby. Clothes, diapers, sheets, a crib, diapers, bottles,
maybe formula, toys, more diapers, there are all kinds of things you need to
get ready for a new baby, and usually the community helps the family get ready
for the baby with gifts and advice. You
know the baby’s coming, and so you prepare.
There are so many other examples I could give. A common phrase among preachers is that
“Sunday’s comin’,” and so you better be ready with your message for
Sunday. Or if you remember that forward-thinking
church I mentioned a few weeks ago. They
knew the future’s coming, and so they prepared for it.
When
you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, whatever that shoe symbolizes, one
concrete thing you can do is to get ready for it. You hear of a couple close to you get engaged
and you reasonably expect to be invited to their wedding, if you’re a lady, you
start thinking about what you’re going to wear to the wedding, or if you need
to go shopping for a new dress. You hear
about a baby coming, or a good friend’s birthday is coming up, you start
thinking about what to do to celebrate.
Sometimes the preparation is all mental, and it’s getting yourself
psyched for the big game, or ready to receive whatever news the doctor might
deliver, or prepared for what you’re going to do if someone close to you
dies. Parents think about these things
while they’re raising their children: what would happen if one or both parents
were to die, God forbid? Who would get
the kids? How would childcare work out?
What changes would need to be made? One
of the best things you can do while waiting for the other shoe to drop is to
get ready for it, and if you don’t know how, then pray about it and perhaps ask
the advice of a couple trusted friends.
When
you’re actively doing something to get ready for an event, then you’re also
likely to be less anxious about it. I
love the way today’s psalm begins, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, so
why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so
why should I tremble?”[1] The psalmist’s point being, of course, that we don’t need to be afraid of whatever’s
coming, and we don’t need to worry about it, either. Usually it’s an angel in the Bible that says
“do not be afraid,” but in our Old Testament reading this morning, it’s God
directly saying to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from
danger and give you a great reward.”[2] Now, the story with Abram, who becomes
Abraham, is how God is going to protect him, since at this time Abram and his
wife, Sarai, have no children and in that culture children were your guarantee
of the future and your protection. Abram
doesn’t think he has a future. The other
shoe that’s going to drop is that he and his wife are going to die childless
and no one will carry on their family line and no one will take care of them in
old age. That’s what Abram’s worried
about. Yet God tells him, “Don’t be
afraid. I will protect you. I will take care of you.” Yes, old age will come. Yes, you will die one day. Spoiler alert: nobody gets off this rock
alive. And as we also heard echoed in
our psalm, that’s still no reason to be afraid or to worry. Whatever the other shoe is, it’s going to
come, so don’t waste your time and energy worrying about it or dreading it or
being afraid of it. It’s going to come,
and at the same time, “God is our light and our salvation.”[3] Therefore, there is no reason to fear anyone
or anything.
This picture
from Christianity Today came across my Facebook feed while I was writing my sermon: [4]
You don’t have to figure out the shoe that’s
dropping, or all the consequences. And I
am hoping that by now you have figured out what the shoe is in your life. Anxiety and fear happen when we think we have
to rely on ourselves and we forget that God is in the planning and preparation,
too. We forget that “God is our light
and our salvation,”[5] we forget that “God is our
shield,”[6] we
forget that “God has kept us safe thus far, and God will lead us home,”[7] to
quote our closing hymn. The next
doctor’s appointment, the next disagreement with a family member, the next car
repair, the next preacher, the next person to die, these things are all going
to happen, at some point or another.
They’re simply part of life. And
I know it’s much easier said than done, but don’t be anxious about all these
things. If you remember in Matthew,
Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear… [God] knows
that you need all these things.”[8] God knows all these things that are
coming. He knows the shoe that’s going
to drop and exactly when it’s going to drop.
So, instead, Jesus continues, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.[9] Therefore,
stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each
day has enough trouble of its own.”[10] Worrying about your shoe isn’t going to help
a single, solitary thing, except maybe help your blood pressure go up. Quit focusing on your anxieties and your
cares, and instead focus on God and God’s kingdom. And if you get really stuck, try praying. Turn it all over to God, because he’s the one
with the plan, he’s the one who will see you through.
Indeed,
as we hear in all of our Scriptures readings this morning, God will provide. In
Genesis, God promises Abram an heir who is his own son. Abram believes God and a few chapters later
Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. In Psalm 27, we read that God “will shelter
me in his own dwelling during troubling times; he will hide me in a secret
place in his own test; he will set me up high, safe on a rock.”[11] A few verses later, the psalmist says that even
if my parents both abandon me, God will take me in.[12] God will provide. Even when the other shoe drops, God will
still take care of us. In Philippians,
Paul points out that our citizenship is in heaven and we look to a savior that
comes from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.[13] God is
our salvation, and God provides our
salvation. We do not have to save
ourselves. Indeed, we cannot save ourselves, or anyone
else. That’s why God sent Jesus, his
only Son, to save us and everyone who believes in him. John 3:17 says, “God sent his Son into the
world not to judge the world, [or to judge us], but to save the world through
him.” That’s why Jesus’ response to King
Herod in our Gospel lesson today is to tell the king that he’s “throwing out
demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day… will
complete [his] work.”[14] On the third day, Jesus rises from the tomb
and defeats death, and fear, and anxiety, and all those shoes we’re worried
about. Not the first day, or the second
day, because even Jesus had to prepare and get ready, first for his death and
then for his resurrection. And he had to
get us ready. As we slowly are perfected
in this life, as we slowly become more like Jesus and reflect his image, Jesus
is getting us ready for that last day, when the last shoe drops. He’s getting us ready to celebrate his
resurrection. He’s getting us ready to
bring us home. He’s getting us ready,
and taking care of us all along the way.
Now,
you still have to go to that doctor’s appointment or have that conversation or
go shopping for that dress to wear to the wedding. God is our light and our salvation, and we
still have to do the work he has given us to do. He’s not going to do it for us, or let us
stay hidden for eternity. We still have
our part to play. The difference is that
we can prepare for it, we can change our attitude about it so that we’re not
anxious or afraid, and we can remember God’s promise to provide. It’s a promise you can stand firm on. It’s a promise that will be kept, because God
is faithful and does keep his promises. I
originally chose “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” for our last hymn, and as I was
sermonizing and that line from “Amazing Grace” came to me, I changed it. Celebrating God’s faithfulness is good. Yet today I want us to remember that God has
already brought us safely through “many dangers, toils, and snares.” He’s already seen us through many shoes that
have dropped. God is good like that.
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