Did ya’ notice any reoccurring pattern in our reading this morning?
There are three stories to be told:
The escape to Egypt …
Herod’s infanticide ….
The return when Herod dies …
Three stories …
Three decisive moments …
Life hangs in the balance …
Three stories …
And three affirmations:
Did ya’ catch the recurring pattern?
The theme?
Fulfillment!
Fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophets …
The Master Plan …
God’s Master Plan … from the moment of creation, Big Bang and all … to this very moment, here and now - our lives, just as they are … and to the very end of time … and however it shall end, and whatever it’s like … God’s Master Plan moving history, and all of its torment and sorrow, along the ways of hope and peace.
Not that any of this is easy for God.
The whole story of God is one of struggle and challenge.
But God never gives up.
Or shall I say,
God gave up once!
God said, “I’m gonna wash these people right outta my hair.”
Remember the Noah story?
God was wearied of our foolish ways.
God said, The world needs a good cleaning.
Into the wash with all of ya’.
And if no one survives, tough!
You have been a huge disappointment.
Oh yeah, there’s one guy, Noah.
He’s not too bad.
Noah, build me an ark.
And you know the rest of the story.
And when it was done, no further ahead.
All of God’s anger and all that death – and we’re right back to square one.
So God points to the rainbow – a promise – I’ll not do that again!
God chooses the harder course of action.
To work with us.
To work in and through all the junk of history.
Abraham, Sarah, can I have a moment of your time?
We’re gonna work together.
I’m not promising you a rose garden, but I am promising to make your name great, and to craft a new world through you.
Together, we’re going to bless this world.
Whether it wants it or not.
And sometimes the world won’t want any of it.
And you may be rejected.
And the road ahead could be rough.
But, come on … we can do it!
Take my hand, and we’ll do it together.
When God sees the rainbow against the storm clouds.
God is reminded of the promise.
I suppose we could say that even God needs an attitude-adjustment now and then.
To remember the promise.
The love.
The hope.
And to keep on keepin’ on.
Even God has to remember the Master Plan.
And not give up.
The Master Plan …
The flight to Egypt in the middle of the night … as it was spoken by the Prophet …
The insane rage of Herod … yes, we knew this would happen … as it was spoken through the prophet.
And the return … and the danger that remains … as it was spoken.
Here is the power of hope.
There is a Master Plan …
Not that any of it easy.
Between here and there, a lot of nasty stuff.
But the Master Plan remains intact.
God at work.
At work in all things for good.
The power of hope.
I don’t know about you, but this I much I know about me … attitude is just about everything.
We cannot control what happens to us … we all know that.
But we can manage what happens inside of us.
The power of prayer …
Faith …
Trust …
Love …
Hope …
The promise of God …
The Master Plan … that our lives, such as they are, are a part of the Master Plan …
We cannot always see the details.
Sometimes we’re lost in the swirl of life and its circumstances.
But hope is just that.
Hope.
Paul the Apostle writes so beautifully in his letter to the church in Rome:
Hope that is seen isn’t hope at all.
It’s a sure bet.
But we hope in things that we can’t always see.
We hope for a promise God makes to the world.
A promise made to each of us.
So we wait for it.
We wait with patience.
And the Holy Spirit helps us.
All along the way.
The Master Plan, here and now, through out lives … the life of Covenant on the Corner … our life together in the fellowship of faith … with Christ at the center, and the Holy Spirit all around us.
I saw that Spirit at work on Christmas Eve here.
The young voices, the eager faces.
All of us here …
Singing, O Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant …
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
The Master Plan.
None of us can control what happens to us.
But with Christ, we manage what happens inside of us.
Attitude is just about everything.
Even the Psalmist speaks of walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death …
Fear and worry and anxiety … these are real emotions … and they have their way with us sometimes … don’t’ they?
Yes they do.
And try as we might, we still lay awake at night.
Fretting and fussing.
But the Psalmist adds:
I will fear no evil.
For thou art with me.
The companionship of God.
I am with you always.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I’ve spent hours telling others, and myself, that it’s okay when the attitude collapses … look, we’re not supermen and superwomen … we’re flesh and blood and bone … we’re mortal to the core, and we know it … life isn’t easy, and that’s okay, too.
It’s okay to be real.
To be human.
To be what we are.
The last time I checked, we don’t have any choice.
We are what we are.
And sometimes we just need a good cry.
A put-a-hankie to the face kind of cry.
Last night, a great movie: The King’s Speech.
All about George the Sixth who took the throne when his brother abdicated to marry Wallace Simpson … it seems the new king had a terrible stammering problem, and he had to make a speech … and he was frightened and sad.
In the arms of his wife, he breaks down.
I’m not a king. I’m not a king at all.
We can’t always be strong.
But I’ve noticed something quite remarkable about life.
The Master Plan.
When I’m not strong, someone else is.
And many a time, it’s Donna.
Or my children.
Many years ago, Josh and I took a trip to Wisconsin … and what’s a trip back home without a visit to the cemetery, right?
To see where my Mom and Dad are buried.
So we drove to the cemetery, found the area, parked the car, walked up a little grassy slope surrounded by hundreds of graves, and there it is – a single stone marking both – my father, buried many years, my mother, cremated some years later … a simple stone marking their journey – a beginning and end …
I stood there … lost in thoughts.
And all of a sudden, tears.
And Josh came up to me and put his big arms around me – he was already much taller than me … and he just held me … the son holding the father … and he said, “It’s okay Dad.”
And for King George the Sixth, God provided a teachers … Lionel Logue, a speech therapist from Australia … when all teachers failed to help the king, this self-taught man enabled the King to make the speech and become the King of England.
When we’re weak, others are there, with their strength.
When we’re ready to give up, God sees to it that someone else isn’t.
And through the Valley we go.
We don’t run … we can’t.
We can only walk.
A slow walk sometimes.
But that’s okay.
God is with us.
With you and with me.
In all the peculiarities of our lives.
Doing great work.
The Master Plan unfolding.
And you and I are a part of the Master Plan.
We are a part of Christ.
And Christ dwells within us.
The child born in Bethlehem’s manger is born within us anew … a thousand times a day … and a million times in a lifetime …
The young boy in the Temple,
He’s in our heart even now, speaking to us as he spoke to the teachers in the temple … amazing them with his insights and faith, and amazing us, too … as we abide in his word, and his word abides in us …
The man who stood in Jordan’s water with John.
To whom the Father said, This is my son, with whom I’m well pleased.
That man is with us, here and now.
The man who called Peter and Andrew and James and John, calls us still … Come, and follow me, and I will give you my purpose, and my passion … yes, and I’ll give you my cross, as well … I will give all of that to you, and then some …
The man who healed the lepers and gave sight to the blind, is still at work.
The man who welcomed the woman at the well … the man who dismissed the crowed so eager to stone a woman caught in adultery … that man is still with us, welcoming everyone … most especially, the outcast and the lonely, the flubs and the failures and the flunkies … and who hasn’t been a flub a time or two?
Who hasn’t failed, and failed badly?
Who hasn’t been a flunky?
We’ve all crossed thresholds we’re not proud of.
We’ve all disappointed ourselves, and others, too.
But the Master Plan is at work.
God knows we’re dust, says the Psalmist.
God knows our weakness and our temptations.
God knows the contours of our soul.
And above all of us, Noah’s rainbow, still!
A promise, to work with us.
Just as we are.
Calling us to Christ.
Come on, take my hand.
We’ll walk this way together.
The Master Plan.
As it was spoken …
Amen and Amen!
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