7 I will
recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has
done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them
according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8 For he said, “Surely they are my
people, children who will not deal falsely”; and he became their savior 9 in
all their distress. It was no messenger
or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he
redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
This second
passage takes that love even through trial mantra and places it right into the
person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not
someone who had it easy. Even though he
was fully God, he was also fully human.
He endured the trials that we know and it is because of that fact that
he is able to redeem us and make us righteous before the throne of God. The question is whether or not we will trust
him in all things. The scripture reads
this way.
Hebrews
2:10-18
10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through
whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the
pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For the
one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this
reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the
congregation I will praise you.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust
in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” 14 Since, therefore, the children
share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that
through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the
devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by
the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that he did not come to help
angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to
become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of
atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself was
tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
On a Sunday
like this one, it can be real easy to get swept up in the glory of the nativity
story that is still so fresh in our minds.
It’s like so many of the Christmas cards that we have received,
depicting the snapshot of a calm and serene Holy family. We like that picture.
But let’s be
honest with one another: how many of you think that things were calm, cool, and
collected in those days immediately following Jesus’ birth? Think of it a different way: has anyone
personally experienced a calm, relaxed, and rested period of time immediately
following the birth of your child? I
don’t have a lot of experience in that realm, but let me throw in my opinion:
no way!
A baby shows
up and regardless of how prepared you think you are, you immediately feel like
you’re playing catch-up: and that’s if you’re prepared!
Remember,
Mary and Joseph may be in Joseph’s ancestral home, but it’s not their home:
they live to the north in Nazareth. And
at least those first few days after Jesus was born, they weren’t even in a
home: they were in an animal shed.
It wasn’t
picturesque! It was dirty, it was noisy,
it was smelly, it was real, and it was really human. Yes, Jesus was fully God, but he was a flesh
and blood human as well.
And that is
what our passage from Hebrews is trying to remind us of. The God whom we worship sent us a savior who
would be able to understand everything that we have to deal with. Yes, we are still celebrating the birth of
our savior, but remember what that birth really means: it means that we have a
savior whose been there through the trials and difficulties and stayed true to
the path of God the Father.
So getting
back to a version of the question asked prior to the reading from Hebrews, so
then why do we act as if there is no way that God will ever be able to
understand all of the various trials and temptations that we deal with? Yes, God is holy, but our savior lived a very
human life.
Remember the
way that he was born? Not too long after
that he and his
parents had
to head down to
We can and
we should trust him with everything that we carry.
This past
year has been a year of transition both for this church and on a personal note,
for my family as well. At this time last
year, my family was living up in New York, feeling good about the conversations
that we had had with a church that you may have heard of a time or two (yeah,
it’s this one), but we still didn’t know.
It was stressful, and at the very least, it wasn’t peaceful.
You, as a
congregation were just starting to use to a new interim pastor, a new choir
director, and a new organist. Again, you
may have been feeling like things were starting to move with a pastoral
candidate or two (wave), but the questions are still there; the concerns are
still there; the doubts are still there.
Twelve
months later, how are we feeling? I
can’t speak for you as a congregation, but I can speak for myself: “I’m feeling
really, really good and I am excited not only about how God has led us over the
last eight months, but how God is going to lead us into the days to come.” In very little time, this has become my
family’s home! I’m not saying that
moving the family and beginning a new Call hasn’t been without its
challenges. It has. But as I think about how God has moved in the
last 12 months, it has been a confirmation of what I’ve been rambling about
here for the last few moments: Jesus has been there, and we should be not only
able, but willing to take everything to him.
This has been a year to truly be reminded of how God is good. Not that everything is easy: I know that it’s
not. But God is there, God is here, and
if God if here, then why should we ever be afraid! We shouldn’t!
We should stride forward into the future knowing that we are a led by a
shepherd who’s been there before us. We
should be willing and able to take everything to him.
Now I know
that I’m a little bit early, but this is the direction the sermon went, so this
is where I am going to go! You get to
flip of the calendar from one year to the next and we use it as an artificially
marker of saying, ‘okay, from here on out, I’m not going to do this; or as the
case may be, I am going to do this other thing.’ You know, the whole resolution thing.
But I want
to shift it up, just a little bit. In
your bulletins was a piece of paper. On
that paper I want you to write down something that you’ve been holding on to;
something that you’ve tried to control; something that you have not trusted
Jesus with.
Think about
it for a moment. Maybe it’s your
schedule, maybe it’s your work, maybe it’s your home life, maybe it’s something
that you’re struggling with. What is one
thing that you have not trusted Jesus with?
Then, remember that Jesus has been there and can support us as we lean
upon our faith and Holy Spirit to walk in the light of God.
No one else
is going to see this piece of paper: only you and God are going to know what is
on it. Write that thing that you’ve been
withholding from God and write it down.
Then, I invite you to bring it forward, and place it in one of the
baskets on the communion table.
Jesus has
been there, you can trust him with all things.
Trust him today.
After Sermon
Prayer
Lord, before
us this morning we have written down an area of our life that we have not
turned over to You. God, we pray that
You might bless all of the individuals who recognized that area of their life
so that they might be able to walk the path that Jesus first walked, a very
human walk of trials and difficulties, but a walk that showed us how to stay in
Your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.