Throughout church history, whenever there has been persecution of the church, it has been a minority of the church that stood with Jesus. Most of those who call themselves followers of Jesus have denied their faith in order to protect their possessions, jobs and lives. Historically, only a minority of the church stands with Jesus during persecution.

So look around the room. Look at the people sitting beside you. If we are like the rest of the church in history, more than half of us will deny Jesus if we are forced to choose. Who would stand with Jesus? Would you deny your faith in Jesus to save your home? Your job? Your family? Your life?

I like to think of myself as a strong person, someone who stands up for my convictions but then Peter was a strong personality. He stepped out to walk on water. He pulled out a sword to defend Jesus when he was arrested. Peter was confident he would not deny Jesus: (Mark 14:31)
Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

But hours later he denied three times knowing Jesus and wept afterwards at his betrayal.

So look around; look at yourself. How would we stand up under persecution? How would you stand up under persecution?

I began this series of sermons: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land, on June 20th by preaching from Psalm 1. Both Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 use the picture of a fruit tree planted by the side of a river. In such an environment, the roots of the tree go down and find the water that allows it to bear fruit.

In Psalm 1 we read:
He (the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord)  is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

Jeremiah uses the same image but adds a detail upon which I want to focus this morning.
He (the one who trusts in the Lord) will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

What I like in this passage in Jeremiah is the line that says
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
That’s the kind of tree I want to be. I don’t want to be a weak-kneed Christian who wilts under pressure. I want to be a Christian who stands with Jesus no matter what.

All fruit trees need roots that do down into the soil to find water to sustain the tree. When there is regular rain, the roots do not need to go very deep. Water is plentiful and the tree produces fruit year after year.

But when drought comes and water is hard to find, only a tree whose roots have gone deep down will find the water needed to make the tree flourish and produce fruit. Trees with shallow roots have leaves that wither and when it comes time to harvest fruit, the tree has not produced anything worth picking.

This is the advantage of a tree planted by the side of a river. Even in drought years where the river is just a trickle, beneath the surface there is water where deep roots find what the tree needs to produce fruit.

On the cover of the bulletin there is a picture of an apricot tree in the wilderness, but prospering because it sits by the side of a river. That is the image on which I want to focus.

When it is easy to be a Christian, when the culture supports going to church and being religious, when the government protects your right to meet and may even give tax deductions to encourage churches, in this environment it is easy to produce fruit. Rain is frequent and fruit is easily produced.

When it is easy to be a Christian there are a lot of people who go to church. When it is culturally convenient to be a Christian, lots of people go to church. When it does not cost much to be a Christian, many people go to church.

In such an environment you go to church on Sundays, meet with your small group during the week, go to a Men’s Prayer Breakfast or Woman’s group, attend periodic conferences that encourage you to live a Christian life, read Christian books and magazines, and listen to Christian worship music. In this environment producing fruit is not difficult.

But when the culture turns against the church or when the government turns against the church, then the number of those going to church declines.

There is a strong bias against Christian faith in American academia. In much of the media this bias against Christian faith dominates. Europe has shifted to secular societies and the US is following course. The morals and values of the culture are shifting and even large parts of the church are shifting with the culture, shifting away from Biblical truth to the cultural truth of the moment.

A church or a member of the church who stands up for Jesus and the teachings of Scripture is increasingly viewed as an impediment to the progress of enlightenment. It is becoming a dry time to be a Christian.

The culture and government can move against the church but that is not the only source of drought. Our personal circumstances can take a bad turn and this will also lead us into a season of drought.

What happens when your financial situation turns upside down and you lose your job? What happens when illness strikes and you or one of your family become seriously sick? What happens when life is no longer moving along smoothly? Will you continue to produce fruit in the drought of disappointment, illness and tragedy?

What does someone look like who is like a tree that produces fruit even during a drought?

Langdon Gilkey was a young American teacher at Yenching University near what was then called Peking, China. In 1943 the Japanese military under wartime pressure rounded up all foreigners into an internment camp where they were kept for two and a half years. He continued his education after the war and became a prominent theologian.

In 1966 he wrote his most popular book: Shantung Compound: The Story of Men and Women Under Pressure, based on a journal he kept while at the internment camp. The prisoners in the internment camp represented a cross-section of humanity. There were businessmen, professors, missionaries, importers, lawyers, doctors, junkies, prostitutes, little children, the old and infirm.

When they moved into the internment camp an immediate problem was that the toilets overflowed. The latrines were not equipped to handle two thousand people and something had to be done, a task no one wanted. Among all these people, who took on this odious task? Some Catholic priests and nuns, aided by some Protestant missionaries, waded in with mops and cloths tied around their faces to clean up this mess.

Some of the missionaries in the internment camp were absorbed into their own communities, tied up in their legalism and unable to associate with the “sinners” in the compound. Others were able to interact and make a positive difference.

One of the missionaries in this camp was Eric Liddell, famous for winning a gold medal in the 400 meters at the 1924 Olympics. He was made famous all over again in 1981 when the movie, Chariots of Fire, portrayed him and other members of the British Olympic team.

Gilkey wrote about him, “It is rare indeed when a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known… In camp he was in his middle forties, lithe and springy of step and, above all, overflowing with good humor and love of life. He was aided by others, to be sure. But it was Eric’s enthusiasm and charm that carried the day with the whole effort. Shortly before the camp ended, he was stricken suddenly with a brain tumor and died the same day. The entire camp, especially its youth, were stunned for days, so great was the vacuum that Eric’s death had left.”

Eric Liddell and the others who faced the ordeal of the internment camp and yet were able to care for others and not be consumed with their own suffering, who were able to take on unpleasant tasks that needed to be done, these people were trees planted by the river who yielded fruit during the drought.

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish monk who during the Second World War was arrested by the German Gestapo and ended up in Auschwitz as prisoner #16670. His life was a life of service but the part I want to tell began five months after he came to the concentration camp.

In July 1941, a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, “My wife! My children!” Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

The ten men were led into the basement room, the starvation room. As the hours and days passed, the camp became aware of something extraordinary happening in the death cell. Past prisoners had spent their dying days howling, attacking one another, clawing the walls in a frenzy of despair.

But now, coming from the death box, those outside heard the faint sounds of singing. For this time the prisoners had a shepherd to gently lead them through the shadows of the valley of death, pointing them to the Great Shepherd.

A prisoner named Bruno Borgowiec, who survived Auschwitz, served as attendant to the death cells. Each day he had to remove the corpses of those who had finally withered away. He also was supposed to empty the waste bucket, but each day the bucket was dry. The inmates had drunk its contents in a futile effort to slake their thirst.

On August 14 there were four prisoners still alive in the bunker and it was needed for new occupants. A German doctor came with injections of carbolic acid to kill the remaining four. When they swung the bunker door open, there, in the light of their flashlight, they saw Father Maximilian Kolbe, a living skeleton, propped against one wall. His head was inclined a bit to the left. He had the ghost of a smile on his lips and his eyes wide open, fixed on some faraway vision. He did not move.  The doctor injected the three prisoners lying on the floor and then Father Kolbe. In a moment he was dead.

Kolbe was a tree planted by a river that yielded fruit in a dry season.

Not all of us will face such an extreme situation, but we choose for or against Jesus all the time. We do not have to wait for a dramatic, life-threatening situation to decide. “Will I stand with Jesus?” is not a question to be decided at some time in the future. It is a decision we make all the time.

When someone offers to help you cheat your way through an exam, do you take the offer or do you choose to stand with Jesus? When you are tempted to have sex and are not married and many of your friends are having pre-marital sex, you have to choose to satisfy your sexual desire or stand with Jesus. When you sit down at the computer and see an ad enticing you to click and be taken to a pornographic site, do you click on the site or do you turn the computer off and stand with Jesus? When you are in a relationship with someone who is not a follower of Jesus and want to get married, who will you choose, who will you love more, that person or Jesus? When you are offered a business contract if only you will pay a bribe, what choice will you make, pay the bribe and get the contract or say no and stand with Jesus. When you are tempted to speak poorly of someone in order to put yourself in a better position at work, what will you choose, the promotion or Jesus? When someone gives you too much change, what will you choose, the little bit of extra money or Jesus? When you get up in the morning and head to the computer to see what people have to say to you on email or facebook or whatever else you use to communicate, you have a decision to make. Will you open your computer or your Bible? Will you choose to see what people think of you and have to say to you or will you choose to see what God has to say to you and what God thinks of you? Will you stand with Jesus or choose the world?

You cannot say, “ I will not deny my faith,” and then deny it with the choices you make day by day. Who will stand with Jesus?

How can we become like a tree planted by a river that produces fruit when times are good and when times are difficult?

Psalm 1 reminded us that the man or woman who is like a tree planted by streams of water does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But instead his or her delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.

When I first moved to Morocco and Annie was still working in the US, I spent six months living with a couple who were like trees planted by the river who produced fruit in dry times. Some of you know Ruth and Habib.

It did not matter what time I woke up in the morning, I would find them seated at the dining room table reading the Bible, Ruth reading her Bible and Habib reading his Bible. I have visited them in California and because of jet lag wake up very early in the morning and although I might be up earlier than them and go out for a run, I would come back and find them seated at the table, reading their Bibles.

If you want to be like a tree planted by a river, yielding fruit even when there is a drought, there is no shortcut. There is no magic fertilizer that will transform you. The consistent practice of reading the Bible and meditating on what you read is what builds up a deep reservoir that carries you through difficult times and allows you to produce fruit in a drought.

But it is more complicated than simply reading the Bible and meditating on what you read. I have known Christians who read their Bible everyday, morning and night and they are tight, legalistic, dry Christians who produce stingy fruit even in the best of times.

To become like a tree that is planted by the river and produces fruit when there is a drought, it is necessary to meditate on the word of God and also to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Reading and meditating on the word of God gives us knowledge but then we need to do something with what we learn.

Paul talks about two stages of salvation in his letter to the church in Rome. The first stage is justification. This is what happens when our name is written in the Book of Life. This is our conversion, when we enter into a relationship with God through Jesus. We are accepted by God as holy because the perfect holiness of Jesus covers over our sin.

But then begins the second stage, sanctification. When you become a daughter or son of God, the Holy Spirit indwells you and begins to work, with your cooperation, to transform you to actually become a holy person. This is very encouraging because when we are discouraged by our seeming inability to make progress, it helps greatly to know that the Holy Spirit is at work in us. We are not doing it on our own.

As God works in our lives, it helps to remember the creative power of the Holy Spirit, In Genesis 1 we read: (Genesis 1:1–2)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The Spirit of God hovered and then the creativity of God exploded into an extravagant array of plants and animals full of colors and wild designs. We live in a world full of beauty and imagination. We are not all the same. We are not boring. We are the product of a creative God and this same creativity is at work in us, making us holy.

When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this work, then wonderful things happen. The creative power of God works in our lives. We read the Bible and meditate on its meaning. We open ourselves to an examination of ourselves and see where we need to grow. We are not static. We are not stuck in a rut. We are moving and growing, being shaped and opening up to ourselves and to the world.

A follower of Jesus who reads the Bible and meditates on the Bible and is open to the work of the Holy Spirit leans forward into the new work of God. Such a follower of Jesus has not arrived but is in process. Such a follower of Jesus gains new spiritual insights regardless of how many years he or she has been a follower of Jesus.

And when this happens we grow into trees that are planted by a river that produce fruit even during a time of drought.

So here is the challenge for you and for me: how will you choose the rest of today and into the coming week? What are the situations you will encounter that will be decision points for you?

There is not someone standing in front of you with a gun asking if you are a follower of Jesus, but you will face the choice of following Jesus and your decision now is just as important as any decision you will make in the future.

Some people, when they come to a fork in the road, choose the easiest path, but that path is not always the one that leads to life. Following Jesus is not always easy. But following Jesus leads to life and the one who chooses Jesus will never regret that decision. The one who chooses the easier path will always, eventually, regret that decision.

Choose Jesus. Stand with Jesus and be like a tree that produces fruit even in a drought.

How much would you be willing to  pay for a good meal?

On February 13, 2007 fifteen people sat down to a 10-course gourmet meal at the Dome Restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. The six chefs who prepared this expensive meal were flown in from France, Germany and Italy. Similarly, the ingredients they used were also flown in from all over the world. The cost of the most expensive meal was about $30,000 – per person – not including tax and tip.

It was estimated that the wine list totaled around $200,000 and included a rare Rothschild estate wine. Fine champagne was also available.

What do you get for $30,000?

Crème brûlée of foie gras with Tonga beans
Tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster
Mousseline of pattes rouges crayfish with morel mushroom infusion
Tarte Fine with scallops and black truffle
Lobster Osso Buczco
Ravioli with guinea fowl and burrata cheese, veal reduction
Saddle of lamb “Léonel”

Then to cleanse the palate for the last three courses, Sorbet “Dom Pérignon”

Supreme of pigeon en croute with cèpes mushroom sauce and cipollotti
Veal cheeks with Périgord truffles

And for desert, Imperial gingerbread pyramid with caramel and salted butter ice-cream

On the other hand you could try a World Meal. A World Meal is the average meal for the average person on the planet and consists of a limited amount of rice and beans. Herbs and spices are optional; as is anything you can forage from the local natural environment. Cost? About 20 cents US. If you wanted the ten course meal and ate ten bowls full, it would still cost only $2.

I’ve had the rice and beans and liked it very much. I have never had any of the ten items on the $30,000 meal.

I could take off here and preach a sermon about the disparity of wealth in the world or the poor stewardship of spending that much money for a meal, but I want to go in a different direction.

We are in a series of sermons titled: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land. Is this $30,000 meal the water we are thirsting for? The world uses the term, “happiness” so let me ask this question: Does having $30,000 available to spend on a single meal bring along with it happiness?

I read in my latest copy of The Week, a summary of news around the world, that
Several studies in recent years have established a direct link between happiness levels and income – which is not all that surprising, since, if nothing else, money enables us to buy things that can make our lives more comfortable, starting with the necessities.

But a new study of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries was the first to distinguish between “life satisfaction”, an overall sense of how it’s going, and day-to-day emotions like feeling upbeat or blah. It turns out that while there’s a strong correlation between wealth and how we rate our lives, how we actually feel is less tied to money. Instead, researchers found that positive and negative emotions were more linked to psychological and social factors, such as feeling respected, having autonomy, and being connected to supportive friends and communities.

In other words, someone who spends $30,000 for a meal and someone who spends 20 cents for a meal have a lot in common. Both are seeking an inner sense of happiness that a lot of money or only a little money will not buy. The person with 20 cents thinks, “If I only had $30,000, then I would be happy,” but having $30,000 does not make someone 150,000 times happier than having 20 cents.

This is the news nobody wants to hear that I talked about a couple weeks ago: Money and everything that money will buy in this world does not deliver on its promises. It will not and cannot satisfy. Maybe it can make life a little easier and a little more pleasant, but it will not answer the question that comes when your partner has an affair with another person. It will not answer the question that comes as you lay in a bed dying, “So what sense did all this make?” It will not answer the question that comes when someone you love dies. It will not answer the question that comes when you finally achieve what you have been longing for and there continues to be this sense of “Is that all there is?”

To a world that searches for meaning and most often looks in the wrong places, there are three invitations in this 55th chapter of Isaiah.

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;

This first invitation emphasizes the life-threatening need we have. Depending on health, people can live four to six weeks without food. But we are much more dependent on water. Without water, people live only two to ten days. Thirsting is a life-threatening situation and here God speaks through Isaiah, his prophet, inviting us to come out of a situation where our life is in danger and into a place where there is abundant provision. Come, everyone in the desert where your tongue is thick and dry and death is approaching; come to an oasis with an abundant supply of water, so much water that you can swim and splash away, drinking all you can drink and knowing when you go to sleep that there will be just as much water in the morning. Come and find in abundance what you have been desperately longing for.

The second invitation highlights our inability and helplessness.
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!

Dry and thirsty as we are, how can we afford to enter the oasis and drink the water and eat the food we need? We have no money. Our pockets are empty of anything that has value at the oasis. We have nothing to offer and are not in a position to bargain.

We are helpless but we are invited to come and we are told to “come, buy and eat”. There is a cost for the food. We have to buy and eat. We have no money to pay for the food but it still has to be bought. The implication is that someone else will pay the bill for us. We have no money, but someone else does. Who has paid the price for this meal? It is Jesus who has paid the price for us and so we come and eat what he has paid for.

Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

This third invitation stresses the richness of what is being offered. We are offered not just the bare water of necessity but the luxurious satisfaction of wine and milk. This is the luxuriousness of the father who welcomed back his prodigal son. The son came back hoping he might be a servant in his father’s household but the father put on his son his robe and ring and killed the fatted calf to celebrate his return. As sinners we do not even deserve to slip through a side door into heaven but we will be welcomed in the front door, welcomed as God’s daughters and sons.

How wonderful an invitation is this? Come be rescued from certain death. Despite your poverty, come and eat and drink to your heart’s content. Come not to a charitable buffet, not a soup kitchen, come to a feast fit for a king – or the daughter or son of a king.

How wonderful you think this invitation is really depends on how thirsty you are. It depends on how aware you are of how desperate your situation is. It depends on how you view your life.

It may be your life is moving along smoothly: great job, great relationships, great health, great prospects. I say the world does not and cannot satisfy our deepest need and you might respond by saying that life is treating me pretty good and I have all I need.

But if you or someone you love has an advanced form of an aggressive cancer, you may be feeling more thirsty. If the world’s money is not slipping freely into your lap and you are struggling to find money for rent, you may feel thirsty. If you have a need to be loved and are not finding someone to love you, you may feel thirsty. If you have an abundance of what the world has to offer and are still feeling unsettled, unfulfilled, you may be recognizing that you are thirsty. This is what Isaiah says in the next verse.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

One of the guests at this more than elaborate meal in Bangkok was a wealthy (obviously) Cambodian woman who lives in Malaysia, Sophiane Foster. When Foster was asked how she was enjoying the meal she was quoted during her eighth course, saying: “I can’t finish it. Your senses can only take so much.”

Our need for meaning is too powerful for the sensual pleasures of this world. Our capacity for sensuality is insufficient for our need. Our senses can only take so much. As attractive as they are, the pleasures of this world offer only momentary satisfaction and then fade away leaving us empty and still searching for meaning. Enjoy a $30,000 meal and the next day you will wake up feeling bloated from having eaten too much rich food, with a headache from having drunk too much wine and with the same problems that plagued you the day before. Relational insecurity, moral weakness, jealousy, envy, fear of death – none of these are dealt with by eating an expensive meal. This wisdom has been known through the ages.

Pliny the Younger in the 1st century observed:
An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Nietzsche in the 19th century wrote:
Possessions are usually diminished by possession.

And Bertold Brecht in the 20th century added:
What a miserable thing life is: you’re living in clover, only the clover isn’t good enough.

Look to the world and its sensual delights for meaning and prepare to be disillusioned. Jim Elliot who was martyred in Ecuador in 1956 spoke great wisdom when he wrote in his journal:
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy when God is inviting you to a fabulous feast that has already been paid for and which will satisfy your deep need for meaning and your deep need to be loved?

How do you accept such an invitation? Isaiah continues:

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

The literal translation of “listen diligently” is to listen, listeningly. Give your full attention to listening to God. Focus on God. Focus with upmost attention.

You are constantly receiving messages. Books, magazines, movies and TV shows send messages. Advertising sends messages. The news sends messages. Walk in a store and you are bombarded with messages. Conversations with friends send messages.

The question is, among all the messages you receive, who will you listen to? In this prophetic word from Isaiah, the encouragement is to listen listeningly to the message God sends to us. Among all the messages you hear, one will save you, the others will not. The others may amuse you, provide temporary pleasure and gratification, but they will not take you safely through life, death and what comes afterwards.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;

Listen and come to me. Come to me. Jesus is the feast. Jesus is the more than abundant, luxurious and satisfying meal. In a few minutes we will come forward to celebrate the Lord’s Supper when we remember the words of Jesus: (Mark 14:22)
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”

A ten course meal in Bangkok, $30,000. The body of Jesus, priceless.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

Eat a ten course meal and you do not need to eat for a few days. Eat the meal Jesus has prepared for you and you have an everlasting covenant.

You come in desperate need of rescue, are provided with everything you need in abundance and it is a free gift to you. You have no money to pay for it. You have nothing you can offer to repay the gift. All you can do is receive with gratitude.

I say this realizing most of us, including me, give partial attention to God. In our best moments we may focus more diligently, but an honest assessment of ourselves finds us distracted by our responsibilities, distracted by our pursuit of worldly pleasures. Rather than listen listeningly, we listen half-heartedly.

And yet the invitation continues to be made. Day after day, despite our weak attempts to follow, the invitation continues to be made.

But be careful, this is a limited time offer.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;

There is a time to seek the Lord and then there will be an end to that time. To casually follow Jesus is dangerous. To push Jesus off and think you can always come back sometime in the future after you take care of business is dangerous. You may run out of time and then where will you be?

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

If you are living a casual Christian life, now is the time to begin to listen listeningly. If you are caught up in sinful behavior, now is the time to seek help, time to get some accountability and resist the temptation that plagues you. If you are mistreating someone, now is the time to change.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about the Lord’s Supper and instructed them: (1 Corinthians 11:28)
A person ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

As you prepare to come forward for the meal you share with Jesus, examine yourself. Confess your sins. Be honest with yourself. If you need to, resolve to share with someone after the service about your struggle and ask them to help hold you accountable for your behavior. If you have been walking away from Jesus, turn around and begin again walking with Jesus. Examine yourself, prepare to come to the table and share this meal with Jesus.

The news that has amazed me many times in my Christian life is that despite my behavior, God still wants me to be his son. God is far more patient with me than I am with myself. God wants you to be his daughter, his son. He will forgive you when you come to him and confess your sin and confess your deep need for him.

God’s relationship with us is not like the human relationships we experience where people do not forgive. Most of us have experienced this and if we are honest, there may be people we are not able to really forgive. But fortunately, none of us is God. God forgives us, over and over and over again.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

That is great news. God does what we do not do well, he forgives us and he will forgive you this morning if you turn away from your sin, turn to him and confess your sin.

Let me finish with one more word of encouragement.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Paul wrote to the church in Philippi: (Philippians 1:3–6)
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

God does not leave his work unfinished. God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. I say this often, you have to cling to Jesus, but Jesus will carry you to safety.

When I watch marathon runners, I admire their steady, strong pace as they run the 42 kilometers of the race. They run up hills faster than I have ever been able to run down those hills.

The Christian life is like a marathon we run and the goal for us is to finish, cross the finish line into heaven. Not many of us run strong all the way along. Sometimes we have to walk. Sometimes we get a cramp and have to stop to massage our legs. Sometimes we trip and fall and cut and scrape our knees and elbows.

It may be we despair of ever finishing the marathon but we need to remember that God who called us into this life will work with us to bring us to the finish line.

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

There is no need to despair. God is at work and his work will be accomplished. Cling to Jesus and he will carry you safely to the finish line.

So why do you worry? Why are you anxious?

The table awaits you, creaking under the weight of tantalizingly delicious food and drink. It is yours, you are invited.

You don’t have any money? None of us do. That will not keep you away. The meal has been paid for.

Examine yourself. Prepare yourself and then come forward to accept this invitation:

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

One of the Psalms of Ascent Jews sang as they climbed up the road to Jerusalem for one of the annual festivals was Psalm 128, a song of blessing. This psalm describes what we all want.
Psalm 128 (The Message)
1–2 All you who fear God, how blessed you are!
how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!
You worked hard and deserve all you’ve got coming.
Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!
3–4 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes,
your household lush as a vineyard,
The children around your table
as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.
Stand in awe of God’s Yes.
Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!
5–6 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem
every day of your life.
And enjoy your grandchildren.
Peace to Israel!

We want to be rewarded for all the hard work of our lives. We want a family: husband, wife and children. We want good lives for our children so they grow up and have good careers and get married and give us grandchildren. We want to live in a land that is at peace. We want to be healthy until the day we die peacefully in our sleep.

This is what we want but what is the reality?

Last Sunday some people in Uganda gathered to watch the final match of the World Cup when two suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing at least 76 people. One moment people were enjoying the match, chatting, relaxing and the next they were dead, injured and traumatized.

The earthquake in Haiti was six months ago and I saw an interview with one man whose family survived the collapse of his five story building. “A miracle,” he said at the time. They interviewed him now, six months later, and he is despondent. His wife has since died of a heart attack and he has not been able to rebuild his building which was his source of income.

Three NATO soldiers and five Afghan civilians died in a Taliban suicide attack on a police base in southern Kandahar province. 27 people were killed in a suicide bombing in Iran. Four were killed by a car bomb in Mexico City. 28 are dead from a hotel fire in Iraq.

Rioting continued in Belfast and in the Philippines, Typhoon Conson hit killing nine with ten missing.

These are some of the items in the international news but there is far more suffering that was not reported in the worldwide media. Children died in tragic accidents. Adults in the prime of life died unexpectedly. Con men swindled innocent or not so innocent victims. Children were abused, women were raped. The powerful took advantage of the weak.

And then there is the suffering that was not reported in the news at all. Families around the world were devastated by adultery and divorce. People suffered, waiting to die, in nursing homes and hospitals.

This suffering happens everyday and we are fortunate that the world is so big that this suffering is spread around so that we do not often experience it ourselves.

Where do you see the blessings of Psalm 128 in these items from the news?

People live as though this world holds the treasure that will satisfy, but that belief is shattered all the time. Death and tragedy intrude into our world, violating our sense of how the world should be. People lose jobs when their company goes bankrupt or when the national economy shatters. Parents bury their children. Women who want to have children cannot while those who should not be having children or who do not want to have children become pregnant.

I wonder if there has ever been anyone who has lived a long life without experiencing pain and disappointment. But no matter how long we live, there still comes an end. A man works and works and saves up money for retirement and then on the day of his retirement, he dies. All that he worked for is gone, slipping through his fingers as he is laid in the grave.

There is a woman in the former Soviet republic of Georgia who is reported to be 130 years old, but we will do well to live two thirds of that. No matter how well we live, every one of us will lose at the end when the grave claims us. Death is the ultimate reality that destroys any illusions we might have.

Job had a good life. He was wealthy, influential, with a large family. He had what every person wanted and then he lost it all. His wealth disappeared. His children died. His health deteriorated. All he had left was his wife and friends who lectured him on what he must have done wrong to deserve this punishment.

This is part of what Job had to say:
“Man born of woman
is of few days and full of trouble.
2 He springs up like a flower and withers away;
like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

This is the conclusion of a man who had no illusions. If Job had any expectation that this world could offer him what he wanted, he lost that and saw this world as it truly is.

The writer of Ecclesiastes had the same wisdom:
Ecclesiastes 1:14 (NIV)
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Or as The Message translates this:
Ecclesiastes 1:14 (The Message)
I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.

Job continues:
Man’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.
6 So look away from him and let him alone,
till he has put in his time like a hired man.
7 “At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.
10 But man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.
11 As water disappears from the sea
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
12 so man lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, men will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.

This is not cynicism or pessimism. This is the reality of our world. You might not like to hear this, but this is truth with a capital T. If you are living for what this world has to offer you, prepare to be disappointed.

The world’s marketing campaign is marvelous. Buy this product and find happiness! Meet the right partner and settle into relational bliss! Get a promotion and find satisfaction! Earn more money and feel secure! Have sexual relationships and be fulfilled! These are empty promises, dead ends. Pursue these and you will smack up against a wall. These promises will not and cannot deliver.

Solomon pursued all these dead end streets and concluded: (Ecclesiastes 2:4–11) (The Message)
4–8 Oh, I did great things:
built houses,
planted vineyards,
designed gardens and parks
and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,
made pools of water
to irrigate the groves of trees.
I bought slaves, male and female,
who had children, giving me even more slaves;
then I acquired large herds and flocks,
larger than any before me in Jerusalem.
I piled up silver and gold,
loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
and—most exquisite of all pleasures—
voluptuous maidens for my bed.
9–10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!

11 Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.

At this point you may ask me, “Jack, I thought we were in the middle of a series of sermons titled ‘Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land’? What does this have to do with feeling dry and tired?”

Good question, and the answer is that sometimes when we are feeling dry and tired, it is because we have been looking in the wrong place for meaning, fulfillment and reward. We look in a bucket of sand for the water that will satisfy our thirst and then wonder why it is we are thirsty.

Wasn’t this Solomon’s problem?

He looked for meaning and fulfillment in work and what was the result?
Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 (The Message)
17 I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.
18–19 And I hated everything I’d accomplished and accumulated on this earth. I can’t take it with me—no, I have to leave it to whoever comes after me. Whether they’re worthy or worthless—and who’s to tell?—they’ll take over the earthly results of my intense thinking and hard work. Smoke.
20–23 That’s when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What’s the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that’s what it is. A bad business from start to finish. So what do you get from a life of hard labor? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night’s rest. Nothing but smoke.

In Greek mythology there was an evil king named Sisyphus who dared to conspire against the gods and therefore was punished by Zeus by being assigned the eternal task of rolling a huge rock up a steep hill. Over and over and over again, just as he is about to reach the top, the rock rolls back down and he has to begin again at the bottom of the hill. This is known as a Sisyphean task and isn’t that the futility of work we experience?

You wash the dishes and the next meal or next day or next week (depending on how long you are willing to live with the mess) you have to begin again. You wash clothes only to have to wash them again. You dust only to have to dust again. You straighten out one relational mess only to be confronted with another and many times it is the same relational mess recreated. You work hard to get a job only to have that job disappear and you need to find another job. You gain a customer only to lose another and have to go out and find a new customer. You work hard to learn how to get along with your boss only to have your boss replaced and you have to learn all over again how to get along with this new boss.

It would be one thing if we could fix a problem and move on, making progress step by step, always looking forward, never having to look back. But the difficulty is that problems reoccur. Dysfunctional behavior never takes a vacation. New procedures are created only to find that someone has discovered a way to twist them around to his or her own benefit.

Friends came to fix up a rural school here in Morocco. They paid to fix up the bathrooms and then a year later discovered that the pipes were not installed properly and the toilets back up and run out the door into the courtyard. So now the cement on the floor has to be broken up and pipes replaced. This is how it goes. How can work reward us when the same problems continue to be recreated?

Trying to find meaning in work is only smoke and spitting into the wind.

Solomon looked for meaning and fulfillment in pleasure and what was the result?
Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 (NIV)
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

We pursue pleasure. We crave pleasure. We long for pleasure. But the more you get the more you desire it. Pleasure is like an addictive drug. It is wonderful the first time but becomes less and less satisfying so you have to increase the amount and quality of pleasure to get what you are looking for.

Frederick Buechner wrote that:
Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.
When pleasure becomes our goal, we can never experience enough pleasure. No matter how good the meal was or how wonderful the massage was, we set out to find that pleasure again, only this time a little better. And lesser meals and lesser massages lose their ability to give us pleasure.

Pleasure cannot satisfy us, cannot quench the deep spiritual thirst we have.

The pursuit of pleasure is smoke and spitting into the wind.

Solomon sought for justice and concluded that this was also a dead end.
Ecclesiastes 4:1–3 (The Message)
Next I turned my attention to all the outrageous violence that takes place on this planet—the tears of the victims, no one to comfort them; the iron grip of oppressors, no one to rescue the victims from them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead instead of the living who are still alive. But luckier than the dead or the living is the person who has never even been, who has never seen the bad business that takes place on this earth.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 (The Message)
Don’t be too upset when you see the poor kicked around, and justice and right violated all over the place. Exploitation filters down from one petty official to another. There’s no end to it, and nothing can be done about it.

From Cain’s murder of his brother Abel to the present day, injustice has always been here. It hurts us deeply because we know that this is not the way it should be. Children should not be abandoned at birth and when parents come along to love them and take care of them the government should not take the only parents these children have ever known away from them.

The powerful should not take advantage of the weak but that is what happens, over and over again, in each generation. Injustice in our world has been a constant and will be with us up to the second that Jesus returns.

If the pursuit of justice is your goal, you will be overcome by injustice. You will become bitter and cynical, hardened against the perpetual suffering you encounter.

The pursuit of justice is smoke and spitting into the wind.

Solomon has so much wealth that when the Queen of Sheba came for a visit, she left speechless. And what did Solomon think about all his wealth?
Ecclesiastes 5:10, 15-17 (NIV)
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.

15 Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.
16 This too is a grievous evil:
As a man comes, so he departs,
and what does he gain,
since he toils for the wind?
17 All his days he eats in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.

Whoever loves money never has money enough and when they do gather more money they are disappointed because it does not satisfy.

Jesus warned a man who was upset his brother was not sharing their inheritance properly:
Luke 12:15 (ESV)
“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

The lure of wealth is very powerful and despite the clear evidence that it does not satisfy, we continue to lust for it.

The wise person learns from Solomon that the pursuit of wealth is smoke and spitting into the wind.

Earlier this week I was talking about this with a friend who has gone into business after being a pastor and I warned him about the dangers associated with gaining wealth. I talked to him about Solomon’s experience and he told me with a smile, “I’d like to get to the point where Solomon was and learn for myself that it does not satisfy.”

This made me think of a line from Will Rogers, a popular commentator in the US in the first decades of the 1990s. One of his observations was this:
“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

There are a lot of us like this, who have to learn for ourselves and cannot learn from what Solomon or anyone else experienced.

In the process we end up looking for meaning in dead end streets and we become tired and dry. We want water and end up with buckets of sand.

It is important to realize that work, pleasure, justice and wealth are not evil.

Work is good. God set the example for us with his work. Jesus said he came to do the work of his father. Paul told the Thessalonians they should work. But work cannot be the end, cannot be the goal. You can’t find meaning in work. Work will always frustrate.

Pleasure is good. God created us as sensual beings in the sensual world he created. He means for us to take pleasure in life, enjoy the world and all that he made. Not to enjoy the pleasure of this world is to be an ungrateful child, dismissing the gift from his or her parents. But if pleasure is your goal, you will be frustrated. We need to enjoy the things of this world without longing for them. That is the key.

Justice is good. God is a god of love and a god of justice. Love and justice are part of God’s character. He cannot not love us and he cannot not be just. God expects us to love each other and he expects us to work for justice, to seek justice. But if justice is the goal of your life, you will be a very unhappy and disappointed person.

Injustice rises up in situation after situation because we humans have a sinful nature that expresses itself over and over again. It is distressing but if we want to see justice as we know it should be, we will have to wait until Jesus returns and ushers us into his kingdom. Until then we work for justice but should not be surprised when it does not arrive or when injustice again raises its ugly head.

Wealth is good. God wants us to prosper and do well. Wealth is not evil. It is the love of money that is evil, not the money itself. Wealth is a gift of God that needs to be used wisely. Wealth can be a great tool used to help build the kingdom of God. Many Christians say they are accumulating wealth to use for God’s kingdom, far fewer use their wealth wisely. Wealth is a gift but a dangerous gift.

We work for these things. It is good to work for them. But if we pursue them, we will never be satisfied. Injustice will always be present. Pleasure will be turned into slavery. Work will become drudgery. Wealth will become a trap.

If you are feeling tired and dry, there may be a number of reasons why that is so. Thus far in this series of sermons we have talked about the need to meditate on the word of God as a way of building up a reservoir to satisfy our thirst. We have talked about the need to give praise to God as a way of receiving the spiritual water we crave. We have talked about the truth that when we are going through the valley of death it is because God, our shepherd, is taking us from one green pasture to another. Periods of dryness are transitional periods.

Many things conspired to make us feel tired and dry; more than one thing will be required to make us feel refreshed. Spending time feeding from the scriptures and meditating on what you read is important. Drinking the joy of giving praise to God is important. Realizing you are on a journey and God is taking you to a good place is important. And so is the point of this sermon, that you need to be careful you are looking for water in the right place.

I have suffered and continue to suffer because of what has happened to the children at the Village of Hope. My dream was taken away. Part of my tiredness and dryness is because I have not handled this well.

When we are distressed about injustice or upset because of problems in our work or frustrated because there is too much hardship and not enough pleasure in our life or tense because the money we want is not coming our way, the focus is on us. It is how we feel, what we do not have. It is our misery, our suffering.

Job was feeling dry and tired. Where did he find water to drink? The answer for Job after all the wisdom of he and his friends was expended was that it was not about himself. It was all about God.
Job 38:4–7 (ESV)
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

For 121 verses God asked Job questions he could not answer, reminding him who was the pre-existing creator God and who was the created being.

The pre-existing creator God is the source of water that refreshes. It is in our relationship with Jesus that we find water that satisfies our deepest thirst.

Are you stuck in the pursuit of something that will not and never will be able to satisfy you? Are you frustrated that this world is not giving you what you want? Are you frustrated that you don’t understand what God is doing or not doing in this world? Is that perhaps part of why you are feeling tired and dry?

I have good news for you. You will not live on this earth forever. A time is coming when you will die a physical death and leave the struggles of this life behind. Because of what Jesus has done for you, when you cling to him he will sustain you in this life and when you die, take you to a better world.

Work to make this world a better place to live. Enjoy the beauty and pleasure of this world. Be grateful for all that God has given you but long for a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Let your life become full of praise for God and you will drink cool, refreshing, life-giving water that will satisfy your deepest thirst.

We see people come and go at RIC and we get used to this. “Pastoring an international church is like pastoring a parade,” I have often said. But there is a difference between someone choosing to leave and someone being forced to leave.

On Monday morning I drove Uchenna to the Casablanca airport for his flight out of the country. He has been a close friend for the past ten years and I have relied on him for his spiritual insights, his strong faith and his friendship.

I am grieving his loss, as I grieved for the parents at the Village of Hope. At least he can take his children with him.

I was talking with a woman last week who told me she finds it difficult to concentrate. She is tired, spiritually tired. I talked with another couple this week who expressed the same sentiments and talked about their anger. The more people I talk with the more I hear this is a common experience.

We are preaching a series of sermons titled: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land. So many of us are feeling dry and tired it seemed right for us to address this and our hope is that we will receive from God the refreshment we crave.

Psalm 63 is a psalm David wrote when he was in the desert because his son, Absalom, had led a coup against him. David was feeling dry and tired and he was understandingly upset, but where does the story start?

David had at least eight wives and fourteen children. These are the ones named in the Bible but there were more. With all these wives and children there was a lot of intrigue and politics at work. Multiple wives inevitably leads to conflict and in this case, the problem began nine years before this psalm was written.

Absalom was one of David’s favorite sons. Absalom had charisma and good looks, much like his father. David loved him and so did the people of Israel. Absalom had a sister named Tamar and when his half-brother Amnon, another son of David, raped her, Absalom expected justice to be done. When David did nothing, Absalom pulled back and began plotting revenge. Two years later he had a party and invited his brothers. During the banquet Absalom’s servants murdered Ammon and Absalom fled to get away from his father’s angry reaction.

For three years he stayed away under the protection of his maternal grandmother until finally others in the court of David pleaded his case and he was allowed to come back to Jerusalem. He was not, however, permitted to come into the palace of his father.

His anger at his father for not having done what was right when Tamar was raped and now being denied the privilege of being in the royal palace simmered and finally, two years later, he led a coup against his father and David fled into the desert to escape. This is the setting for this psalm. In 2 Samuel 15:23 we read a description of David’s move to the desert:
The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on toward the desert.

David made a lot of mistakes in his life and they came back to cause him pain. This time the pain was enormous. The son he continued to love was leading a rebellion against him. He was forced to flee from his palace in Jerusalem. He was at war with his son whom he loved. He was grieving and anxious and as some of us know from our experience in the past several months, that is a terribly exhausting combination. Our circumstances are different but our emotions are not dissimilar so we can learn from his psalm.

The psalm begins with an affirmation:
O God, you are my God,

This is not a psalm full of doubt, wondering where God is. This is an expression of certain faith. It is an expression of the intimate relationship God has established with his people.

Earlier in his life David wrote (Psalm 23)
The Lord is my shepherd

Zak preached from that psalm last week and it is a wonderfully intimate psalm in which David expressed his experience of having been loved by and cared for by his shepherd.

In Genesis 17:7 God made a covenant with Abram in which he said:
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

God did not make this promise of an intimate relationship only with Abraham. The writer of Hebrews (8:10) spoke about this promise made to the people of Israel when they set out in the desert from Egypt.
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Jesus affirmed this relationship: (Matthew 22:31-32)
have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

Throughout history God has moved into history to establish intimate relationships with those he calls to him and who respond. We are among the fortunate who have been called and who answered that call.

That the preexisting creator of the universe loves us in this way and reaches out to us is a great mystery but it is a mystery on which we lean and from which we draw great comfort.

In the midst of tiredness and sadness we can call out to God who is in an intimate relationship with us.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

There is a saying in the US that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. How do you make someone thirsty? How do you make yourself thirsty?

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well she asked for water and Jesus answered: (John 4:13–14)
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

When her conversation began with Jesus she was thirsty but she did not know it. Her life choices had led her from one relationship to another but they had not brought satisfaction or contentment. Only after talking with Jesus did she discover her spiritual thirst she had been trying to satisfy in other ways.

The truth is that everyone in the world is thirsty. We are born to enter into an intimate relationship with God but most of the world seeks everything but the water Jesus offers that will satisfy this thirst.

Longing is not something I can work at. It is a recognition of what I am feeling and this takes some reflection. What am I feeling? What do I want? It may be that when I first ask myself this question I will conclude that what I want is a good vacation or a good movie to watch or a good book to read or an excellent meal. I will come to this later but my true need goes much deeper than this. Ultimately what I am longing for is a closer, more intimate relationship with God. That is the only thing that will satisfy.

When you reflect and discover your true thirst, you will know your longing for God in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Sometimes our world seems more dry than other times, but the truth is that this is always our condition. The world, even when we are relaxing in a plush oasis, is a dry and weary land where there is no water. Nothing will truly satisfy except the water that Jesus spoke of. We deceive ourselves into thinking other things will satisfy our thirst but they will never satisfy our deepest thirst.

In Psalm 1 we learned that the way out of dryness and tiredness is to meditate on the word of God. (Psalm 1:2–3)
his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

In Psalm 63 the lesson is that the solution to our problem of being dry and tired is to give praise to God.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

As David fled into the desert with the tears of the people surrounding him, fearing for his life, grieving for the rebellion of his son, he remembered better times.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

David was a man who sinned with all his heart and mind and who also worshiped God with all his heart and mind and now his mind went back to his experiences of worship.

We worship each Sunday here at RIC but there are some Sundays that stand out above others when I had a wonderful sense of the presence of God among us. It is not that God decided to visit us that particular Sunday, God is always present with us, but on those Sundays that come to mind I was particularly open to his presence.

In my ten years in Morocco I remember particularly Palm Sunday weekend in Marrakech in 2001. About four hundred followers of Jesus gathered from all over the world to pray and praise. Graham Kendrick came with four other musicians to lead us in our praise of God. In all my years as a follower of Jesus, that might be the most wonderful experience of worship I have had. I thought I would burst with joy as we sang and gave praise. Everyone was dancing. The violin player left the microphone on the stage and danced through the isles, playing his violin in an expression of praise. Graham Kendrick knelt on the stage playing his guitar in his expression of praise.

These are the memories that come back to me and memories of worship and praise as David played his harp or when others led in worship came back to David. Perhaps he remembered dancing with all his might before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought up into Jerusalem.

Remembering these experiences in our lives encourages us and helps us to have a different perspective.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

The world beats down on us. Our circumstances beat down on us. We are tired and anxious. Remember when you sensed God’s presence in worship and praise and let that encourage you. Because of your experience of God you can realize that the life that is oppressive is not as powerful as the presence of God you experienced.

In those worship experiences when we glimpse just a bit of the heavenly glory of Jesus we realize that this satisfies much more than any of the many other ways we try to satisfy our spiritual thirst. Being loved by God, the joy of worshiping God is far more satisfying than any part of the life we live. We praise because that is what gives us life.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

I’ve referred to this, let me talk more directly about it.

In the past week I have been grieving the loss of Uchenna and Dolapo and their sons. I have had difficulty focusing, difficulty concentrating. So what have I done? I played a lot of solitaire on the computer. I finished season seven of a TV show called Monk. When my soul was crying out for a seven-course French meal I fed myself cheap snacks that did not and can not satisfy. They distract but do not satisfy.

Eating a cookie or popcorn does not make me less tired or less anxious. It merely fills the time. But praise to God is like a seven-course French meal that deeply satisfies.

What do you do if you try to cook a seven-course French meal but all you can do is burn toast? What do you do if you sit down and sing a song but it does nothing for you? Psalm 63 is telling us that when we feel tired and dry we should give praise to God but what if we do not have musical skills or even if we do, our singing seems meaningless?

We don’t have to do it ourselves. We are fortunate to live in an age when we don’t have to gather musicians to play for us. All we have to do is turn on the CD player or mp3 player or whatever we have and there are the musicians playing for us. (Just think what Mozart or Bach or Beethoven would have thought of this incredible miracle of technology.)

There is a wonderful series of novels written by Susan Howatch that center around Starbridge Cathedral, a fictional setting in England. In each novel a character is having a crisis and a spiritual director helps put him back together. In one of these books, Ultimate Prizes, Charles, an archdeacon in the Anglican Church, is struggling and his spiritual director advises him to limit his ex tempore prayers, his spontaneous prayers, the way we most often pray, and to lean on the written prayers of others. In this book Charles asks:
“But how can I be sure I’ll even hear any word from God, let alone discern the meaning of any message which comes my way? I fell so deaf – so muddled and confused -“
His spiritual director responds:
“That’s exactly why your life of prayer and devotion is now so crucial. You must do all you can to cultivate your receptivity. Try cutting down the ex tempore prayers to the essential intercessions and concentrate on one or two formal prayers which you can say very slowly, thinking hard on each phrase. The Collects are always helpful and no doubt you have your own favorites prayers which you can use …

I have benefitted from this advice in my walk with God. About five years ago I was spiritually depleted and I began reading each morning The Valley of Vision, prayers of the Puritans. I leaned on those prayers and they helped me refill my spiritual reservoir.

In the same way, you can sit and listen to excellent musicians as they lead you in praise and worship. Lean on their praise and allow them to pull you into praise and worship of God. You don’t have to do it yourself and even if you are musically skilled, it may be good for you to sit back and lean on others for awhile.

6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.

There may be times when you cannot sleep because of the anxiety you feel. So what do you do? This is a great time to put on earphones if you have others in your bedroom and listen to praise music. Let the music inspire you to pray to God. Listen to the words of the songs, pray and allow yourself to relax and fall asleep again.

You have a choice. You can lie in bed and race over and over again in your mind the situation that is making you anxious and preventing you from sleeping. Or you can choose to focus on God, not your situation, and thank him, give him praise, and if you need to, allow others to lead you in prayer with the prayers they have written and in praise with the songs they are singing.

7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

Isn’t that a wonderful image? I sing in the shadow of your wings.

David was fleeing from the army of his son, fearful of the strength of those who supported his son and in this fearful climate he wrote:
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

You know who else came to my mind when I thought about this? Paul and Silas when they were in Philippi. Those who were economically threatened by the ministry of Paul and Silas complained and had them arrested. They were stripped and beaten. They were severely flogged and then they were placed in a prison cell with their feet fastened in stocks.

Do you understand what this means? They were in pain. They had bloody backs. Bruises, maybe some fractured bones. They were in pain and had no medicine to take to ease their pain. They faced an uncertain future and as they sat in their prison cell, what did they do? (Acts 16:25)
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

Whatever you are facing, it is not as grim a situation as that of Paul and Silas. Regardless of your circumstances, regardless of the pain you are experiencing, you can sing praise because you sit in the shadow of God’s protection. Lean on the praise of others and allow their praise to become your praise as they lift you up out of your circumstances into the nurturing worship of God.

It may be that you are facing more pain than you have ever thought you would experience. It may be that the continual anxiety and uncertainty is getting to you. David was experiencing the rebellion of his son as well as fearing for his life and the loss of his kingdom. Whatever your experience is, you need to know you cannot take care of it by yourself.

8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Do you need help? Do you need encouragement? Do you need hope? We sang this morning the Graham Kendrick song, Is Anyone Thirsty? Are you thirsty? Is your soul longing for refreshment? How desperate are you? Are you desperate enough to cling to God?

I have shared before the image of Cosette in Les Miserable clinging to the neck of Jean Valjean as he climbed over the walls of Paris to safety. Jean Valjean did the work of climbing but Cosette had to cling to his neck.

God will do the work of saving you and encouraging you and giving you once again hope but you have to cling to Jesus.

8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Cling to God and his right hand will uphold you. In this psalm God is viewed as someone who is right handed and it is his strongest hand that holds you and lifts you up.

The first third of the life of Moses was lived in the household of the Pharaoh of Egypt. When Moses was an adult he had a sense that it was his destiny to rescue Israel from the harsh oppression of the Egyptians. But when he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave and found out that Pharaoh knew about this, he fled into the desert.

The next third of his life was lived as a sheepherder in the middle of nowhere, quite a fall from being a leader in the advanced civilization of Egypt. This part of his life was marked by a sense of failure and self-doubt. He had been given a chance to lead and had failed. Now he would live out his days watching sheep until he died. That was going to be it.

And then Moses came to the burning bush.
Exodus 3:4–6
God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Moses had settled for mediocrity. He doubted his abilities. God had called him to rescue his people and Moses had failed. He lived now with his failure. He was in the desert and his life was a desert. But in this dry ground he discovered God’s presence and out of that experience came the fulfillment of what God had originally called him to do.

In the pain of his desert experience Moses discovered that he was walking on holy ground because God was present with him.

The ground on which you are walking is holy ground. It may seem dry and lifeless to you, but it is holy. It may seem hopeless to you but it is holy ground. It is holy ground because God is present with you.

Meditate on God’s word. Let his word feed you and sustain you. Give praise to God.    Sing in the safety of his protection. If you need help, let the prayers of others and the praise and worship of others lift you up until you can pray and sing praise on your own.

As God worked with Moses and lifted him up out of his mediocrity and depression, so will God work with you and lift you up out of your anxiety and fear.

Don’t give up. Cling to Jesus. Meditate on his word. Sing praise. Lean on others to help you do this. God will refill your spiritual reservoir with clear, refreshing water. God will bring healing to your pain. God will bring you to life.

I am tired. No matter what I do, I’m tired. I sleep but wake up not feeling refreshed. I have been taking naps which I have rarely done before. And still I am tired. And I am thirsty. I pour a coke with lots of ice and after I drink, I am still thirsty. I am tired and thirsty inside and out.

I thought this was just me but as I have talked with Christian leaders in this country over the past couple weeks I have heard that they too feel tired and dry. If it was just me, I could understand it. But when so many people are feeling this way, there is something significant happening.

I read the book of Acts and see the early church responding with boldness to the threats of the Sanhedrin. Then I look around in my world and I see a lot of people who are intimidated, tired and fearful. What is wrong with us? Are we not as strong in our faith as the early followers of Jesus?

After Peter and John had been threatened by the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish elders and teachers, they reported what had happened to the early followers of Jesus and then they prayed: (Acts 4:24–31)
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

That’s what we want. That is what many of us have prayed for, but that is not what is happening.

I have heard some people say they hope they are kicked out of the country. This way they will not be viewed as quitters; instead they will be viewed as martyrs and then they will be able to rest and escape the tension of living in this country.

Here is what I find myself longing for. I long for the peace and quiet of the meadow. I picture trees lining the side of a running stream, lush green grass, a country path alongside the stream with nothing more than the occasional bicycle passing by. This is a place where you could put a fishing pole in the stream and fall asleep on the softness of the grassy riverbank, hoping no fish bites to disturb your rest. Nearby is a deep pool with a small waterfall. I dive into the cool clear water and come up into the warm sunshine and dry off and lay in a hammock looking up at the blue sky spotted through the green leaves. I want this experience inside and out.

When I discovered that it was not just me but there were others with the same sense of tiredness and dryness, I decided it would be good for us to preach about spiritual refreshment for the next several sermons. So I went through the scriptures looking for passages talking about water and thirsting and being parched and was amazed at how many there are. What we are feeling is not unique to us. It is not the first time in history God’s people have felt this way. It has been a common experience.

So we will look at Psalm 1 today. Zak will preach next week from Psalm 23. Psalms 42, 63 and 69 will follow. Job 14, Isaiah 41, Isaiah 55, Jeremiah 17, John 4 and Revelation 22. We may not get to all these passages. We will feel our way along. If you have other passages you would like us to consider in this series, let me know.

The sermon series title is: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land.

I want us to focus on the refreshment Jesus offers us. We need to be encouraged. We need to cast off our fear. We need to be emboldened, not by the strength of our will, but by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We need the water Jesus offers us.

I believe that as we move along in this series the passages we look at will teach us, correct us, encourage us, direct us and I hope that God will bring us the spiritual refreshment we are craving.

The first text we come to is Psalm 1 and this psalm, which serves as an introduction to all the psalms, begins with three negatives. Blessed is the man who does not.
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

This opening verse describes three degrees of departure from God. Does not walk, does not stand, does not sit. How do we enter into evil? First we walk by and listen, then we stand and participate and finally we sit down and live in our sinful disobedience.

This makes me think of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. When Abraham and Lot became too wealthy and the herdsmen of Lot were fighting with the herdsmen of Abraham, Abraham called Lot to a mountain overlooking the valley of Jordan and asked him to choose what land he would take. Lot chose the lush, fertile land of the valley in which lay the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember that God eventually destroyed these cities because as it is written in Genesis 13:13
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

Psalm 1 describes the gradual move away from God. See how Lot followed this pattern as Genesis describes where Lot lived. In Genesis 13:12, after Lot chose the plains of the Jordan valley, we read that:
Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

After Lot made his choice, Abraham built an altar and worshiped the Lord but Lot pitched his tents near Sodom.

Later there was a battle and Lot and his possessions were captured. Notice where he is now living. (Genesis 14:12)
They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

Lot pitched his tents near Sodom and when the kings captured him he had moved and was now living in Sodom.

Then when angels arrive to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great evil in those cities, where is Lot to be found? (Genesis 19:1)
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.

Lot pitched his tent near Sodom, then lived in Sodom and finally sat as a city elder in the gates of Sodom. Lot walked by Sodom, then stood in Sodom and finally sat in Sodom.

Psalm 1 tells us
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

Blessed is the man or woman who does not accept the advice of the world, who does not become party to the sin of the world and who does not take on the values of the world so that he mocks the things of God.

When RIC received the letter from the national leadership of EEAM demanding I step down and RIC sever its relationship with AMEP, I was asked if I took this personally. That was a silly question, of course I took it personally.

And over the past couple weeks I have wanted to do what the world says I should do. I have wanted to justify myself, to show how innocent I am and how guilty others are. I have wanted to pay back the leadership that sent that letter. I have wanted to seek revenge.

My desires are the first step away from God. It is like pitching my tent near Sodom.

Fortunately I have a godly wife and godly co-pastors who have advised me and kept me from following through on my desires and I have not taken the next step of actually doing the things I have desired. The RICEmail and other communications I have sent present a fairly balanced view of the events. I have to admit that I walked by but I did not stand and participate.

The third stage of distancing myself from God comes after I have listened to the advice of the world and after I have taken that advice. Now I sit in the gateway of the world and give approval to the actions of the world and mock those who object to the practices of the world.

When Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Rome about the depravity of the world, he concluded by writing: (Romans 1:32)
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Blessed is the one who does not walk by the world, taking its advice, who does not stand with the world, putting into practice what the world advises and thirdly who does not sit with the world, approving its actions.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

This second verse stands in opposition to the first verse. Rather than walk in the counsel of the wicked, blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord.

There is a choice here, listen to the world or listen to God’s word and it is a critical choice because what shapes a person’s thinking shapes his or her life.

Abraham regularly built altars to worship God wherever he went. There is no indication that Lot ever build an altar. Abraham’s devotion to God protected him and blessed him. Lot had a terrible finish to his life, living in a cave, fathering children in a drunken stupor, testimony to his continually bad choices which resulted from his lack of devotion to God.

In light of all that God has done for us, Paul wrote in Romans 12, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. And then he goes on:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It is by the renewing of our mind that we are to resist the patterns of this world and the way we renew our mind is by delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on the law day and night.

Reading a verse in the morning and then rushing off to get on with the tasks of the day is not going to be sufficient.

Are you feeling tired and dry? Let me ask you if you have been spending time reading the Bible and meditating on what it says? I have to say that in the midst of the tension I was spending little or no time reading and meditating on the Bible.

Just when I most need its wisdom, I keep my Bible shut – and then I complain that I am feeling tired and dry.

In the world of computers they talk about the concept of GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. If you put bad data into the computer, you will get bad information out of the computer. The same is true with your mind which will reflect whatever you put into it. Psalm 1 offers the clear choice: fill your mind with the world’s advice or meditate on God’s word. What is going to shape your mind?

Paul wrote to Timothy: (1 Timothy 4:16)
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Meditate on the wisdom of the Old and New Testaments. Use what you read to help you stand against the advice of the world that will pull you away from God and his intention for you. Your life is at stake as well as all those you influence.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

A tree planted by streams of water, that’s exactly what I want. That is my longing. When we meditate on the scripture that God has provided for us, our roots go down into the water of the stream that will sustain us.

But notice that the tree yields it fruit in season. For most of the year a fruit tree sits without any fruit. For most of the year you see only leaves. To get the fruit you have to wait. For an apple tree you wait through winter, spring and summer and only in the fall do you get the apples from the tree.

And you can’t plant a tree one day and then come back the next to pick its fruit. It takes two or three years before a tree that has been planted begins to bear fruit, in season.

Instant gratification is not the way of God. We sit down, read the Bible, think about it, maybe journal about what we have read and pray and then expect everything to be fine.

We sit down, put our roots in the water of the Bible and expect instantaneous fruit. That is not how God works. One of the fruit of the Spirit is patience and this is not a fruit we like to wait for.

Sit by the stream and sink your roots in the refreshing waters of the Bible and be patient. It is not a matter of days but weeks and months. If you still feel dry, persevere. Be patient. Over time you will build up a reservoir and out of that reservoir you will bear fruit, in season.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

God told Joshua as he was about to enter into the promised land of Canaan: (Joshua 1:8)
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Those who meditate on God’s word will be prosperous and successful, but not so the wicked.

They are like chaff. They have no real substance. When wheat is harvested the threshers crush stalks to break apart the wheat kernels. Then the process of winnowing begins as the wheat and chaff are thrown up into the air. Because the chaff weighs very little, it is blown away by the wind and the wheat falls to the ground.

The wicked are like chaff. They have no real substance and will not remain. They may appear to be prosperous and they may appear to be winning the battle, but they will eventually be blown away. Just as we need to be patient to receive the water we need to fill our spiritual reservoirs, so do we need to be patient for God’s judgment. The wicked will not last. In the end they will collapse and perish.

The wicked will not stand in the judgment that is coming. They will be crushed and blown away. As wheat is separated from the chaff, so will the wicked be separated from the righteous.

Why will this happen? Because the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.

You who are tired and confused, fearful and intimidated, God is watching over you. There will be many more lessons coming in the following weeks, but this first lesson is clear. If you want the spiritual refreshment God offers you, sink your roots into the soil be the side of the stream. Meditate on God’s word. Read it and think about it. Let what you have read stay in your thoughts throughout the day. Be patient. Let God refill your reservoir. You will bear fruit, in season.

A man visited his friend who had just started as pastor of a church and realized that the acoustics for worship would be much improved if the piano was moved from the left side of the pulpit to the right. He suggested this but the pastor had talked with the elders and realized they were very resistant to change. A year later the man came back to visit his friend and was surprised to see the piano on the right side of the sanctuary. “How did you get the piano moved? I though the congregation resisted change.” The pastor told his friend that he started out moving the piano 15 centimeters the first Sunday and then continued each week to move the piano a bit more to the right. After a year the piano was on the other side and no one had objected.

We have not had that luxury; our change has been more immediate.

We find ourselves in a strange environment this morning. There is no balcony. There is no high ceiling. We do not have pews. This does not look like a church.

But what does a church look like?

I am certain that the building we have been meeting in does not look very much like the church building you were used to when you came to Morocco. The order of service has most likely not been what you were used to. The style of preaching has most likely been different. Some are used to having communion every Sunday and praying the Lord’s Prayer. Some are used to a service where the worship seems much more spontaneous, without a printed program. Having the songs projected on a screen probably feels a lot more familiar to many of you and new and strange to others. Meeting in this room may feel a lot more familiar to some of you than where we have been meeting.

So whatever a church looks like, it is not one kind of church that we have in mind. Our view of what a church looks like varies depending on the church we came from and with approximately twenty-five countries and forty different denominations among us, that will be quite varied.

On the bulletin cover there are five pictures and the caption asks, “Can you find the church?” Four of the pictures are of church buildings and one is of some followers of Jesus worshipping together. We know the answer to this question; it is the people who make up the church but we often are confused about that.

When Jesus was teaching about church discipline, he said: (Matthew 18:20)
For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

Many of us were taught this as children: (using our hands) Here is the church; here is the steeple; open the doors and there are the people. We who are gathered here this morning are the church and around the world, wherever followers of Jesus are gathered, that is where the church is. Some meet in buildings, others meet outdoors in the forest, others meet in houses. The church where Annie and I first began dating met in the gymnasium of a school.

Wherever we meet, we get used to that and then resist changing. Think about the first Sunday you came to RIC. Where did you sit? My guess is that where you sat that first Sunday is where you sat every Sunday thereafter, unless a group of people came and took your spot. We are creatures of habit. We create familiarity as much as we can. Look at where you are sitting this morning. For as long as we meet at Assemblee Chretienne you will probably feel the compulsion to sit in the same place.

When we attended Westerly Road Church in Princeton, where Tracy was one of the pastors, I made a point of sitting in a different section of the church each Sunday because I did not want to give in to this compulsion. But it required each week that I take the time to think where I had sat the previous week and consciously choose a new seat.

It takes effort to change, but is change necessary? Why try to change? Is change good for us?

There are variations of this quote floating on the internet: The only difference between a rut and a grave is the dimensions.

This quote suggests that not to change is to die. It suggests that change is necessary and good for us. I thought about this some time ago and think I might have talked about it in a sermon. How would the church be different if our average lifespan doubled. Instead of living to be 80 years old, we lived to be 160 years old and sometimes 200 years old.

I am convinced that if this was the case, the church would not have grown as it has. Our human nature resists change and we try to keep things as they are. When Annie’s grandfather was in his 90s and we visited him in his nursing home, he talked about a time when he was young when he had led the change in the liturgy of the Lutheran Church in the US. The older people in the congregation resisted this change and he, as one of the young leaders in the church, led the successful battle to move along with the change. Then in his 80s there was another suggested change to the Lutheran liturgy and this time he was one of those opposed to the change.

This is how we are. As we age, we hold on to the music, the Bible translation, the church patterns of our younger years. It takes effort to adapt as we age.

Fortunately, for the growth of the church, we move into our 70s and 80s and begin to die and the younger generation takes leadership of the church and moves it into new ways of worship and evangelism. If we lived to be160 or 200, we would be able to resist that change for a much longer time and the church would suffer in the process.

So what should we do? Should we seek change so we can be more effective as followers of Jesus? I think there are some who do that; seek change for the sake of change, and that can be destructive. Sometimes change is just change and not better. How can we make change beneficial?

When I thought about preaching this morning, the text that came to my mind is the account of Jesus and his three closest disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus had a summit meeting with Elijah and Moses. In this account there are four lessons that I think will be helpful to us, that will lead us into change that is good and necessary for us.

Mark 9:2–8
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

The first lesson is this: Jesus leads us into wonderful spiritual experiences.

Why did Jesus take Peter, James and John with him when he climbed up the mountain? Other times in the Gospels we read that Jesus went off alone but not this time. This time he wanted Peter, James and John to be with him.

When I was in business I most often traveled alone and when I had some free time, I went to museums or local scenes of interest. And when I was sitting at a pig auction in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or sitting in a warm pool in the evening mist of San Jose, Costa Rica, or eating delicious salmon on the Pacific coast of the state of Washington, I wished that Annie and Elizabeth and Caitlin could be with me. I wanted them to experience the wonderful and interesting things I saw. There were times each of them traveled with me, but not nearly enough. I always regretted that they were not with me.

Why? Because I needed someone to carry extra baggage? No. I wanted them with me because I loved them and wanted them to experience what I was experiencing. I wanted them to share my experience with me.

Jesus knew what was going to happen and he wanted Peter, James and John, his three closest disciples, to be with him and experience with him the wonders of this heavenly summit meeting.

When we are called out by God into adventure and new experiences, it is because God wants us to have the delight of new spiritual experiences – and these are not found in a rut, doing the same thing we have always been doing in the same way we have always done it.

The wonderful picture of this for me comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit. This scene takes place outside the snug, comfortable home of Bilbo Baggins where Bilbo is relaxing and smoking his pipe. Gandalf, the wizard, comes to invite him to an adventure.
“Very pretty ” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smoke rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

“I should think so — in these parts  We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things  Make you late for dinner  I can’t think what anybody sees in them,” said our Mr. Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out another even bigger smoke-ring.

Bilbo Baggins proceeded to set out on this adventure, had nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable experiences that made him late for dinner and even caused him to miss his dinner. But he came back a wiser hobbit, stronger in character, and with a greater understanding of life.

Because Jesus loves us and wants us to grow and develop stronger faith, he is always leading us into new spiritual experiences.

Jesus taught: (Luke 5:37–39)
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Jesus is always bringing new wine and we must set out with him in the change he sets before us so we can adapt and accept the new wine he is bringing.

But notice that Jesus understood our resistance to change. In the next verse he added:
39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”

He might have said, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Human nature has not changed over the centuries. People in the time of Jesus resisted change just as we do. We like how it used to be, how it is, but Jesus invites us out into adventure and new experiences, what will be, and that is where life is to be found.

The second lesson is something I already mentioned at the beginning of the sermon so I don’t need to spend much time on it: Wherever we meet to experience Jesus, that is where the church is.

Peter, James and John experienced the transfiguration of Jesus into his heavenly glory and saw him speaking with Moses and Elijah and in the incredible wonder of that moment Peter said he wanted to build three buildings, to make this spot a church.

What Peter was told was that he did not need to build three buildings to make this a church, it was already a church because Peter, James and John were there with Jesus. It is always the church when we gather to meet with Jesus.

The third lesson is that we experience Jesus when we focus on him, listen to him.

If you are shooting a gun or bow and arrow, it is easiest to hit the target when it is standing still. Far more difficult is to hit a target when it is moving.

Jesus is a moving target. When you want to be with Jesus, you cannot count on him doing the same thing twice. Look at the ways in which he healed people who were blind. One time he touched their eyes and they could see. Another time he spit on their eyes. Another time he spit on the ground, made mud from the dirt and put that on the eyes. Another time he simply spoke without touching.

If you wanted to follow Jesus to learn how to heal people who were blind you would be confused. He looked, had compassion and then acted but his actions did not follow patterns.

We prefer a target that does not move. We want to come in, sit in the same seat we sat in the previous week, have a service that is familiar to us, sing songs we know, hear a sermon in the style we are used to. We want to control our experiences. But following Jesus means we will be stretched out of our comfortable understandings into new experiences we cannot control.

I have had this experience several times. We had friends over and had a wonderful evening, almost magical. So at some later date I invited the same friends, had the same food, trying to recreate that evening and it just did not work.

This has happened to me at RIC when I have led worship and a song we sang or a prayer that we prayed was exceptional with such a strong sense of the presence of God. I tried another time to sing that song or pray that prayer but this time it fell flat.

Our tendency is to try to recreate what has worked in the past rather than step out into something new but that is what we have to do if we want to experience Jesus.

Peter was overcome by the wonder of the experience of Jesus in his heavenly glory and he wanted to lock this experience and put it in a building so he could come back to it whenever he wanted.
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

What did God think of this idea? Did he say, “Very good Peter. That’s a wonderful idea. Let me help you as I helped Noah with the ark and Solomon with the Temple. Let me give you the dimensions and then we can work on this together.”

No. What God said to Peter was this:
Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

If you want further experiences like this, don’t build a building and try to freeze this moment in time, don’t try to recreate this moment, follow my son. Jesus does not do the same thing over and over again. His creativity keeps him moving and we need to move with him if we are to stay with him.

It is a highly ironic and very sad commentary that today on Mount Tabor in Israel, where it is believed Jesus met with Moses and Elijah, there is the Church of the Transfiguration. Undoubtedly, when people come to the Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, they pray to relive this experience that Peter, James and John had with Jesus, but God does not want us to put our trust and confidence in a building that holds on to the past. Buildings can inhibit our ability to listen to Jesus. People think their building is the church, the church becomes their focus and they lose touch with Jesus. This is the danger.

When Moses led Israel through the wilderness they were afflicted with poisonous snakes. Moses prayed for the people and God directed him to make a bronze serpent and put it up on a pole. Whenever someone was bit and looked up at the bronze snake, they were healed. You can see a picture of this in your bulletin.

There is no further mention of the bronze serpent until we read along in 2 Kings 18:4 and the reform of Hezekiah:
He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.

What God intended for good became, over time, an idol and the people put their focus on the bronze serpent rather than God. Just as Israel build a calf out of gold while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the people of Israel made this bronze serpent an idol and we today can make our church buildings or any other material thing our idol.

God cannot be contained and limited. God cannot be contained in a burning bush or a tabernacle or any building. Jesus is a moving target and we need to move with him if we are to experience him.

When the Holy Spirit calls us out into adventure, however we are called, we need to step out, keeping our focus on Jesus, listening to him. When we do this we will be led into change that is good and necessary for us. This kind of change will not be change for the sake of change. It will be change directed by God who loves us and wants us to grow in faith and character and to have the privilege of working with him as he builds his kingdom.

The fourth lesson is that the goal of change is always to be with Jesus.
Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

Isn’t that a wonderful verse? If you need to memorize a verse, memorize this one.
Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

There was no bronze serpent, no building, no denomination, no church politics, just Jesus.

Much has changed over the past three months. What we were used to has passed away and now we are left with uncertainty. With all the deportations some followers of Jesus have become fearful. Who will protect them? Who will protect the church in Morocco? A church building? No! Only Jesus can protect what he is building. If the gates of Hell will not prevail against the growth of the church, why are we so fearful?

Let all the idols that encourage us to put their faith in them pass away and let us be left alone with Jesus. He will protect us and lead us safely to him.

Where will you find peace and security in the midst of uncertainty? Your relationships with important people in this country? Your nationality? Don’t lean on and depend on what will pass away. Push those aside and lean on Jesus.

Change is necessary for our growth as Christians. I had a couple posters when I first became a follower of Jesus. One said, “Growth is the only evidence of life.” The second said, “Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks out his neck.”

We need to lean into change, to experience the new thing God is doing. Paul wrote to the Philippians (3:13–14)
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Straining forward, pressing on; this is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus.

We don’t seek change for the sake of change; we strain forward, keeping our focus on Jesus, keeping up with the new thing he is doing as he builds his church.

Our situation has changed. Now it is up to us to embrace it, pray and determine what next steps he wants us to take.

In the meantime, we are still the church. We have a new location but we are still Rabat International Church.

We have some for whom today is their last Sunday at RIC. They are moving from Morocco, maybe going back to what is more familiar, perhaps going to a new unfamiliarity.

I encourage you to keep your focus on Jesus, to make it your goal to be alone with Jesus as you navigate the changes before you.

For those of us who will be at RIC next week and the weeks that follow, we need to do the same. There may be more changes in the future and we too will be best served if we keep our focus on Jesus, put our trust and confidence in him and not in the temporal world.

Jesus will lead us into new spiritual adventures. Jesus will keep us safe. Jesus will be with us.

You have probably noticed that I am a big Paul Simon fan. In my first years as a Christian, a speaker at our church suggested we pick someone famous and pray for them. So over the years, I have prayed for Paul Simon, some years more than others. Whenever he comes out with a new album, I examine the lyrics to try and discover what is going on in his spiritual life. It might be good for you to do the same, pick someone famous and begin to pray for them.

When I was thinking about the text for today in which Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement and wondering what I would use for an introduction to this sermon, this Paul Simon song came to mind:
You’re Kind
You’re kind
You’re so kind
You rescued me when I was blind
And you put me on your pillow
When I was on the wall
You’re kind, so kind, so kind

And you’re good
You’re so good
You introduced me to your neighborhood
Seems like I ain’t never had
so many friends before
That’s because you’re good
You’re so good
Why you don’t treat me like
the other humans do
Is just a mystery to me
It gets me agitated when I think that
You’re gonna love me now indefinitely

So goodbye, goodbye
I’m gonna leave you now
And here’s the reason why

I like to sleep with the window open
And you keep the window closed
So goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

This happens to be one of the discussion points for Annie and me. I like to sleep with the window open, especially when it is cold outside and I remember times when I had to go to the window with Annie’s complaints ringing in my ears, to reduce the tiny little slit of openness that I was allowed to have. Annie might have a different memory at this point but I am the one preaching.

It is very often little things like this that erupt into sharp disagreements.

A couple weeks ago Pastor Zak preached about the conflict in Acts 15 that precedes this sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. Allow me to give some background to this conflict before we get to the sharp disagreement at the end of the chapter.

The early church was composed of Jews who decided that Jesus was the long promised Messiah and became his followers. At Pentecost the circle of the followers of Jesus expanded as Jews from around the known world believed and were baptized. So there were Greek-speaking Jews and Hebrew-speaking Jews which created tensions when the perception was that the widows of the Greek-speaking Jews were not getting their fair share of the food being distributed by the twelve apostles. This dispute was settled when the apostles appointed seven mostly Greek-speaking Jews to oversee the distribution.

The early church grew and there were occasional tensions, but the followers of Jesus were all Jews who kept the Jewish laws. They observed the Sabbath; their sons were circumcised; they kept the dietary laws.

There were significant exceptions to their obedience to the law such as when the Gentile Cornelius and his household believed and were accepted by Peter and later the Jerusalem council. But even Cornelius and his household adhered to the Jewish law. They were followers of Jesus but they followed through the law of Moses by becoming Jews to become followers of Jesus.

But then the Gospel expanded again. (Acts 11:19–21)
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

This was a major step as the Gospel moved away from Jews to Gentiles. To the Jews Jesus was the long promised Messiah, Jesus the Messiah. But now Jesus was presented to the Gentiles not as Jesus the Messiah but as the Lord Jesus. Gentiles did not understand the concept of Messiah but they did understand the concept of lordship so the gospel was translated into their culture so they could more easily understand it.

Then Barnabas brought Saul, not yet called Paul, to Antioch where together they taught and discipled these new believers. After some time, during one of their meetings, (Acts 13:2–3)
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

As they traveled it became clear that Saul was the one God used most powerfully and as Luke writes the history it became not Barnabas and Saul, but Paul and Barnabas. Note also that Saul took on his Greek name, Paul, as he moved into the Gentile world.

Paul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey and stayed for a long time in Antioch – perhaps Paul needed time to recover from being stoned and left for dead in Lystra.

At some point Peter visited and stayed in Antioch and here began the conflict of Acts 15. This visit by Peter is not recorded in Acts but in a letter Paul wrote to the Galatians. (Galatians 2:11–14)
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

You have to understand that Paul was unique. I don’t know how many men there were (there may have been women but the culture did not allow them to lead) who were capable of understanding the implications of what Jesus had done. Paul was exceptional in that his mind and spirit led him to the full implications of the death and resurrection of Jesus and he was leading the followers of Jesus into this new understanding. Paul created the theology of the emerging church as his mind and spirit led him deeper into the truth of Jesus. Paul was leading and others were some distance behind.

Paul wrote that Peter was fearful. This does not sound like the Peter of the gospels so this may be Paul’s spin of the situation. It could be that Peter and Barnabas did not want to offend the men who came from James in Jerusalem. Maybe it was this that led them to stop eating with the Gentiles. Or maybe it was just that they slipped comfortably into old habits.

But Paul was so far ahead of them theologically and he thought things through so much more clearly he had to pull them to the implications of what Jesus had done in his death and resurrection. So Paul had to, in this case, lead Peter and Barnabas into the truth.

The third leader in this conflict was James, the leader of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem and the half-brother of Jesus. James led the mostly Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, including those who had been Pharisees and as you remember, the Pharisees strictly followed the law of Moses and carried this with them when they became Jesus followers.

So you have three leaders of the followers of Jesus in this conflict of Acts 15: Paul who had moved into the Gentile world and taken on his Greek name, James who was firmly in the Jewish camp and Peter who was wavering between the two.

What started the conflict was this: (Acts 15:1)
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

This is what James was teaching in Jerusalem. Yes, Gentiles are accepted into the family of God but they must become Jews in order to do so.

Paul strongly refuted this. In writing to the Galatians who were being exposed to the same teaching he wrote: (Galatians 2:15–16)
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Peter was trying to be in both camps. He ate with Gentiles when he was in Antioch but when the Jews from Jerusalem came he stopped eating with Gentiles.

This was a huge issue that threatened to split the church wide open – churches have split over far less significant issues.

Paul and Barnabas traveled up to Jerusalem to meet with the Jerusalem council and in this meeting after members of the Jewish camp made their complaint, Peter stood first to speak and revealed that Paul’s rebuke of him had hit home. (Acts 15:10–11)
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.

Paul and Barnabas then spoke making their case and finally James spoke. (Acts 15:19)
It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

The process that was followed is a model for all who seek to resolve theological differences and it is a testimony to the work of God in their lives that James was able to yield and support Paul and Barnabas in their ministry to the Gentile world.

A letter was written to be sent to the Gentile followers of Jesus accompanied by two men to communicate what was in the letter. Everyone shook hands and hugged, the unity of the church was maintained and everyone went home. This was a huge victory for the church.

But then in the least expected place conflict once again erupted. (Acts 15:36-41)
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

Isn’t that frustrating? It was a masterful display of wise and humble leadership as a potentially divisive conflict was resolved and then from where it was least expected, another conflict erupted that split the leadership.

What was the issue here?

On the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas, John, also called Mark, traveled with them as a helper. He was a young man, a cousin of Barnabas, and he sailed with them to the island of Cyprus, the birthplace of Barnabas. They then sailed north to Perga, on the coast of what is today Turkey and then Luke records: (Acts 13:13)
From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.

Why did John Mark leave? Was he homesick? Was he upset that his cousin, Barnabas, who had been the leader, was now being overtaken by Paul? They started out as Barnabas and Saul and now it was Paul and Barnabas. Was he fearful of the dangers they could encounter? For whatever reason, he left and it is this desertion that caused problems for Paul.

The conversation started out fine.
Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

I imagine they became excited and talked about their route, what churches they would visit, the people they would see, how they would travel. And then came the detail that split them apart.
Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

“You want to have Mark come along? Are you kidding? He deserted us when we needed him. No way!”
“But Paul, he was a young man and he’s older now. He has matured and deserves a second chance.”
“What we are doing is far too important to deal with second chances. Remember that I was stoned and left for dead in Lystra. I need someone I can count on, not someone who will run away as soon as it gets difficult.”
“Paul, please, he is my cousin. I know him. I am sure he will not make the same mistake again.”
“No, absolutely not!”

There were family issues involved. It may well be that there were personality differences between Paul and Barnabas. There are personalities that prefer justice and others that prefer mercy. Some personalities do not make exceptions to their rules and others think rules are made to be broken for the sake of relationships. For whatever reason the argument went on and on and became increasingly emotional. I imagine that voices were raised. I imagine that some things were said on both sides they later regretted saying. This is how arguments go.

They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

They split with Barnabas and Mark heading west and Paul and Silas heading north.

Was their argument worth a split?

I began looking at this argument as an expression of sin but in talking with Tracy and Zak and then reading the commentaries more closely, I came to the conclusion that this was an example of two people with two different perspectives that forced them to part ways.

There are times when we argue our position with all the integrity of mind and spirit we have and disagree with someone else also arguing with integrity of mind and spirit. We come to a point of irreconcilable differences and the only solution is to separate. There are other times when selfish agendas, the lust for power or control or money drive the argument. I am not talking about that. This is specifically about sharp disagreements between people who argue with integrity but cannot agree and separate.

This text offers some healthy ways to do this.
Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left

Note first that Barnabas and Paul both continued to work for Jesus.

Barnabas did not sulk. Paul did not campaign to give Barnabas a bad name. Neither one of them went home to lick their wounds. Barnabas took his young cousin and left for Cyprus, the same first destination for he and Paul on their first missionary journey. Paul met Silas in Jerusalem and then Silas was chosen to accompany the letter the council wrote. He had impressed Paul with his ministry in Antioch and so Paul chose him as his companion and they headed north to Turkey.

There will be times when there are irreconcilable differences and it will be necessary to part but separating from each other does not mean we separate ourselves from Jesus. We are still called by Jesus to work with him. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, this is our key, central calling.

Work to resolve differences. Work hard to reconcile differences, but when you reach an impasse, agree to separate but keep on working with Jesus.

This sharp disagreement and separation must have been upsetting to the followers of Jesus in Antioch. Remember that it was in worship and prayer that the Holy Spirit spoke to them (Acts 13:2)
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

The church in Antioch was personally involved in the sending out of Paul and Barnabas and they still carried the responsibility of supporting and encouraging them.

Luke wrote that
Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

Who did the brothers commend, Paul and Silas? Also Barnabas and Mark?

Luke is recording Paul’s story so it is likely he is referring to Paul and Silas, but I imagine the fellowship commended both to the grace of the Lord. It does not seem that the church took sides in this argument.

So secondly, when you have friends who separate because of irreconcilable differences, it is your responsibility to bless both groups.

A few years ago a friend in the church told me that if there were a Pentecostal church in Rabat, he would go to that church. I told him that if this happened, I would miss the Pentecostals in our congregation and it would hurt me that they would want to leave RIC and my preaching. But, I told him, if you did leave to start up another church, I would send you out with my blessing. I would want to continue to encourage and support you.

It is all about Jesus! Have you ever heard me say that? It is all about Jesus. It is not about us. So when we have legitimate differences and cannot be reconciled, we continue to focus on Jesus, continue to work for Jesus and give our blessing to both sides that separate.

What was the relationship like between Paul and Barnabas after this?

In II Corinthians 8:18- 24 Paul spoke of Titus being accompanied by a brother most commentators say is Barnabas
who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel… [and] who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous … Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.

In I Corinthians 9:6 and Galatians 2:13 Paul refers to Barnabas with respect.

In short, although he and Barnabas separated, Paul did not lose his respect for Barnabas. They had a severe difference of opinion but they continued to respect each other.

So thirdly, when you separate with someone else, resist the temptation to justify yourself. Resist the temptation to make yourself look good and the other person look bad. If you have difficulty doing this, chances are that your pride has been involved and you will need to reflect and look for the sin in your behavior.

One last lesson comes from the fact that John Mark was later restored to Paul as a friend and trusted colleague. At the end of his letter to the church in Colosse, Paul wrote (Colossians 4:10–11)
My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)

Apparently Mark’s reputation had suffered and he was being restored into ministry as one of those who worked with Paul.

At the end of his life, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he instructed him (2 Timothy 4:11)
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

Paul and Mark were reconciled before the death of Paul. Mark became a trusted colleague and developed as a powerful leader in the church. Mark was led into a ministry that eventually took him to Egypt where he was the first bishop of the church in Alexandria.

So fourthly, in relationships, when someone shuts the door on you, do not shut the door on them.

Sometimes in hotels there are adjoining rooms with interconnecting doors, one on each side of the doorway. This allows you to rent both rooms and go back and forth without having to step out into the public hallway.

Relationships are like this. You each have a door and you pass back and forth in your friendship. When someone becomes upset and shuts and locks their door, you have a choice. If you slam your door and lock it, what happens in the future when the other person decides they want to open their door? They will open the door to the relationship and find a locked door. If you keep your door open, then at any time in the future when they decide to open their door, they will find you ready to enter again into a relationship with them.

This means you need to try to understand why the other person in the relationship has acted as he or she did. Clement of Alexandria, leader of the Jewish school in that town who knew Mark, wrote, “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle.”

If you can understand why it is someone has acted as they have, it helps to keep the door to the relationship open. When you understand why the other person acted as they did, it makes it easier to forgive the other person for what they have done.

Keeping your door open is not easy. There is one person I have known for ten years who has repeatedly hurt me by her actions. It amazes me that she has such power to hurt me, but it is because I will not shut the door that I continue to be vulnerable to her actions and when she does not trust me or believe what I say, I am hurt.

But that is the price we pay to keep open doors in our relationships with others.

How open are the doors in your relationships? I am talking here particularly about relationships with other Christians. When you think of sharp disagreements, does anyone come to your mind? I would encourage you to pray for these people who come to mind. There is a long path ahead and God will be at work in both of you so future reconciliation is always a possibility.

You will both one day be side by side in heaven; it is good to work now toward the unity of mind and spirit you will have on that day.

Everyone loves getting presents. Annie had her birthday last week and I brought her an abundance of flowers to let her know I love her. Presents are a great way to express our love and concern for someone.

The visit last week of Matt Ristuccia, the senior pastor of Westerly Road Church, the church from which Tracy and I came to Morocco, was a wonderful present to us. He spent time with the Troxels and Annie and me, asking how we were doing in the midst of the stress of the past few weeks, encouraging us. And I know he was a great encouragement to many others when he was here.

This is a very stressful time for many of us. It would be one thing if we had to deal with a one-time event that had passed and now we were dealing with the trauma from that event. But for us the suffering and uncertainty is ongoing. The Village of Hope children are still without their parents and there are some concerns about their treatment. The deportations of foreign Christians does not appear to be over. Moroccan Christians are being interrogated, harassed and threatened around the country.

In a period of great stress, we need to know that someone loves us and cares for us.

In Western tradition, Christmas is more associated with gift giving than is Easter. From our Christian perspective, we understand that God gave us the gift of Jesus which we celebrate at Christmas – God became man, Emmanuel, God with us.

That alone would be worth celebrating. God visiting us in the form of a man so we could know him and learn from him. But Easter was the greatest present and so this morning I want to unwrap two Easter presents for us, contained in these eighteen verses from John 20, that let us know how marvelously and wonderfully God loves us and cares for us.

Let’s set the context, although I know you are very familiar with the story. Jesus was crucified on Friday and his disciples were in shock, in panic and in disbelief. How could their leader end up like this? Jesus who was going to change the world with them at his side, was now dead and beginning to rot in his tomb.

On Sunday morning, after the Sabbath, some women went to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices, as was the custom of the time, probably like going to a grave and putting fresh flowers on it today.

They came back with some stunning news that the tomb was empty and Jesus was not to be found. The other Gospels report that the women saw some angels, but not Jesus. They ran back to the disciples and told them,
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

How do you handle this kind of news? In this case, John and Peter ran to the tomb to see for themselves. John, being younger and faster, arrived there first. It was true; the stone that had blocked the entrance to the tomb had been rolled aside. John looked into the tomb and saw the strips of linen that had been wound around Jesus lying there but did not go in.

And so we come to Easter Present number one.
Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

Let’s begin to unwrap this present. The tomb in which Jesus had been laid was probably a tomb carved out of the rock with a shelve carved into the side of the tomb. It was on this shelve that Jesus had been laid.

When Jesus was laid in the tomb, his body had been prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, Pharisees in the Sanhedrin, both were secret admirers and followers of Jesus.

In preparing Jesus for burial, they revealed a great deal of devotion and respect. Joseph brought with him about 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of a mixture of myrrh and aloes which made this a very expensive burial. A piece of cloth was tied around the head of Jesus from the top of his head and under his jaw. This was done to keep the mouth closed.

They then took the body of Jesus with his arms by his side and after soaking rolls of linen cloth in a mixture of myrrh and aloes, wrapped Jesus’ dead body around and around until he was covered from his neck to his feet in this wrap of linen cloth, wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy.

This is how Nicodemus and Joseph left Jesus on Friday, laying on the shelf of the tomb, wrapped up in the linen with a cloth tied around his head.

Now it is Sunday morning and John looks into the tomb to the shelf where Jesus had been laid and he sees the linen cloth that had been wrapped around the body of Jesus but no Jesus. Peter was always the boldest of the disciples – remember that it was he among all of the disciples who dared to get out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus. So John waited for Peter and after Peter went in to take a closer look, John finally followed him.

What did they see? John writes that Peter saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

This detail was important to John when he wrote his Gospel. Why did he include it? What did this detail mean to him? John wrote that he saw and believed, and then added this parenthetical comment (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) John believed Jesus was alive but how had this happened? Had he never really died?

Luke wrote in his Gospel that Peter ran to the tomb and: (Luke 24:12)
Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

What was it about the strips of linen and the cloth that made John believe that Jesus was not dead? What was it that made Peter go away wondering to himself what had happened?

Let me ask a question: When was there another time in the experience of John and Peter when they had seen a body come out of a tomb? It was not that long ago, just a few weeks earlier in Bethany, when Jesus had called Lazarus to come out of the tomb after he had been dead for four days. (John 11:43-44)
Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

In this case, an experience which was still fresh in their minds, Lazarus had come out and stood there. He was helpless, his arms imprisoned in the strips of linen wrapped around him. Others had come to him to untie the cloth that was around his head and to unwrap him so he could be free.

But this time something was different. After Lazarus had been set free from his graveclothes, they just lay there in a heap where others had helped to remove them. In this case, there was something about the way the cloth and the strips of linen lay there that puzzled Peter and John.

There is a lot of debate about the detail of John’s description of the cloth and strips of linen with every word examined for its meaning and interpretation. As I understand it, the cloth that was wrapped around the head of Jesus lay on the stone shelf just where Jesus’ head had laid. The strips of linen were laying just where they had been wrapped around the body of Jesus. The cloth was still knotted as it had been when Joseph and Nicodemus had tied it around the head of Jesus. The strips of linen were still layered as they had been when Joseph and Nicodemus had wrapped them around and around the body of Jesus.

It was as if the body of Jesus had just evaporated and the wrappings around him had been left undisturbed.

What did this mean? What they did not see was Jesus. That much is clear. So where was he? Had someone stolen his body? Had he not really died and later, in the coolness of the tomb, regained consciousness?

You can imagine that Peter and John were puzzled. If Jesus had woken up, not having died, he would have struggled quite a bit to squirm his way out of the strips of linen wrapped around his body. Finally when his hands were free, he could have taken off the cloth from around his head.

If thieves had taken the body, they would have had to tear off the graveclothes. Was it possible that the strips of linen had been removed and then carefully arranged to look as if they had not been disturbed?

When Peter and John took a closer look, did they see something that made them even more puzzled? Did they see that where the blood and other fluids had soaked through the linen strips and coagulated, the dried blood and fluids had formed a kind of seal and that seal had not been broken? It used to be that when a letter was sent, a seal was imprinted in wax on the flap of the envelope to prove that the letter had not been opened. In this case, the strips of linen had not been unwrapped and then re-wrapped. They were in the same condition that Joseph and Nicodemus had left them. The seal made with the dried blood and other bodily fluids of Jesus had not been broken.

You can take an egg and blow out the contents of the egg, leaving the egg looking as if it had never been disturbed. But how do you blow a body out of graveclothes that has been tightly wrapped around the body?

Peter and John knew Jesus was no longer in the tomb. They suspected he was alive, but that he had resurrected and lifted up out of his graveclothes, was beyond their comprehension at this point.

When Peter went away wondering, do you think he tried to figure out the difference between the experience they had witnessed with Lazarus and this baffling experience in the tomb?

The difference is the first present of Easter from this passage. John puts this detail in his Gospel because he wants to make absolutely sure we see the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. There is no explanation for what happened to Jesus other than that he died and was resurrected. He lifted right out of his graveclothes with a new resurrection body.

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he was raised to life, still facing his physical death. Death was still the enemy of Lazarus. Someday he would die and be put in a tomb and his life would be over. But when Jesus resurrected from the dead, he demolished the power of death. He blew open the doors of death and walked into eternal life. He met death and defeated it so it is no longer to be feared. It is no longer the final enemy.

So Paul could write in I Corinthians: (I Corinthians 15:54-56)
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our first Easter present this year. Jesus offers us, through his death and resurrection, the hope of eternal life that allows us to live this life without fear of death. We will all die a physical death, but because of Jesus, we have no need to fear that death because we know eternal life with Jesus awaits us. Our physical death is not the end but a glorious beginning.

Some of our Moroccan Christian brothers and sisters when they were threatened with being beaten made this clear to their interrogators, “I am not afraid of being taken to your prison or of being killed.” They made clear that for them, as followers of Jesus, they have a certain hope of a wonderful future and are not afraid of what men can do to them.

Will you take this present that is offered to you? Are you content to watch someone else open this present or would you like it for yourself?

Jesus said, (Revelation 3:20)
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

This is a present meant for you, will you take it this morning? Will you pray this morning to God and offer to him your life, confessing your need of him? It has been perhaps for you many years that Jesus has stood knocking at the door of your life and you have resisted him. This morning, will you accept this Easter gift? Jesus waits at the door for your response.

Jesus said (Matthew 7)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Pray and he will answer. Surrender your life and your will to God and receive from him new life and the hope of eternal life with him.

That’s our first present this Easter. If that were the only present we received, it would be more than enough. But we are so blessed, there is more.

As we move along in this passage, we come to our second present to unwrap.

When Jesus resurrected, his body was in some way different than it had been. His followers, who saw him after he resurrected from the dead, did not know that it was him – at first. There is complete unanimity about this in the resurrection accounts of the four Gospels. This has given some conspiracists the opportunity to advance theories that Jesus did not rise from the dead but that some pretender passed himself off as Jesus. But this is absurd, because not only would this person have to fool the disciples, he would also have to walk through doors and walls and put on himself the terrible scars of crucifixion.

The truth is that Jesus was changed in appearance and not immediately recognized. In John’s account, after Peter and John had left, puzzled and perplexed, believing but not really understanding, Mary remained in the garden in the area of the tomb. She remained, grieving for Jesus and thinking that his body had been carried away by thieves. In her tears, she looked into the tomb and saw two angels, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus had been laid.

One of the angels spoke to her, “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

With all the astonishing things taking place that morning and with all the intense emotions being experienced by the followers of Jesus, Mary does not seem to be too mystified at the appearance of angels. What normally caused people to tremble in fear and fall to their knees, seemed to be taken by Mary as just one more extraordinary event on an extraordinary day.

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned around and saw someone she supposed was the gardener and he spoke, using the exact same words as had the angels.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

She was sharp enough that morning not to ask the two angels what they had done with Jesus, but she thought she might ask the gardener. This was his garden, surely he must know what had happened to the body.
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

And now we come to our second Easter present.
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Names are very important to us. I have the same name as my father and grandfather and have books in which they wrote their names that have special meaning to me. I like my name.

When parents pick a name for their child, they reject names because of someone they knew with that name that they did not like. The father may like a name but the mother says, “Absolutely not! I knew a boy with that name and he was a jerk!” And so they go through name after name until they find one they both like. But the truth is that whatever name you give to your child, your child will give meaning to that name, not the other way around. Jack the Ripper, who was a serial killer in England, does not make Jack, the pastor of RIC, less of a person and it does not make Jack, the son of Jimmy and Jennifer, less of a person.

When someone calls out our name, we sit up and pay attention. I can greet the congregation of RIC and that will include you. But when I call out, Conor, Grace, Austin, Hyuna, Emmanuel, Mark, Bobbie, Elizabeth, Marie, James, Anthony, Gloria, Precious, Caleb, Jimmy, Nana, Emily, Maxwell or Peter – each of you with one of those names hears what I say more clearly.

Your name makes you an individual. It separates you from others. When I call out Hyunwoo Jang, Hyunwoo is separated from all others. If I call out Elliot, there may be some confusion as at least Elliot Morrow, Elliot Lamptey and Elliot Jones sit up and pay attention.

When someone knows our name, they begin to know who we are. When someone takes time to learn our name it makes us feel important.

We can see the importance of this by the way prisoners are treated. As part of their punishment, they lose their name and are known only by a number.

In an orphanage, children want to be assured that people working there know their name. The children at the Village of Hope wanted me to know their name. We don’t want to be one of a faceless mass of humanity. We want to be known as individuals. This is especially important to us when someone we respect and look up to knows us by name.

So it is significant that Mary recognized Jesus only when he called her by her name, “Mary.” She did not recognize Jesus by his appearance. She did not recognize Jesus by his voice. She recognized Jesus when he spoke her name.

One of the more preposterous beliefs of Jews and Christians is that God knows us by name. From the outside of Christian faith, this is egotistical thinking. God, the creator of the universe, creator of billions of stars far larger than our own star; this God came to be born as a man on the third planet orbiting this little star, suffered and died for the sake of an individual creature who is less than a speck on this third planet of the little star called the sun?

This is really incredible thinking. And yet it is true. The history of God’s interaction with men and women on this planet is one in which he shows concern for individuals.

When Jesus died on the cross, he died for each one of us, individually, by name. Jesus did not die for mankind in general. He died specifically for you and specifically for me.

When the disciples returned from their first mission trip, they were excited about all they had experienced, but Jesus told them (Luke 10:20)
“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Many Christians in Morocco are calling their embassy to find if their name is on the list of those who will be denied reentry into Morocco. “Am I on the list?” is the question being asked. But that list is not really so important.

Jesus died for you and me by name and when we accept his gift of salvation, the first Easter present we unwrapped this morning, our name is written in the Book of Life and it is on that list that you want to find your name.

When Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount, he said: (Matthew 20)
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

We are not anonymous creatures in a sea of humanity. How many of us know how many hairs we have on our head? (Easier for some than others) Jesus made the point that God knows us even better than we know ourselves.

Jesus taught in John 10
The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

He calls his own sheep by name. Not, “Come sheep,” but individually by name.

When Moses asked God for a sign, God responded:
“I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

Jesus called to a tax collector up in a tree trying to catch a glimpse of him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

Jesus called to a Pharisee on a trip to Damascus with the mission of persecuting Christians, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

The second Easter present for us this morning is that Jesus knows you by name. When he died on the cross, he died for you. When Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He invited you to come to receive his rest, his care, his love, his concern.

At our Good Friday service we nailed our names to the cross that we decorated this morning with flowers. Jesus’ sacrifice was made for us because he loved us and loves us by name.

Are you feeling lonely this morning? Discouraged? Worried? Afraid? Anxious? Grief stricken? Jesus calls you by name. Why are you crying? Why are you discouraged? Why are you feeling so alone? Why are you feeling so overwhelmed? Why are you worried?

Come onto me Georgia and Faith and Joshua and Joseph and Katie and Jennifer and Bright and Michael and Kay and Donn and Godwin and Mary and Lisa and Carey and Shinyun and Melissa and Sonya and Carlotta and Blessing and Primrose and Nancy and Nicole.

Come unto me and receive my love and care.

Two Easter presents, both available for you. Both of them have your name written on them. They are yours to open. They are presents given in love.

Allow this Easter to be a blessed one for you. Open the first present and accept God’s free gift of salvation. Allow the fear of death to fade away as you embrace the hope Jesus offers with his resurrection from the dead.

Open the second present and rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. As amazing as it seems, God knows you by name and cares intimately for you. Go to Jesus with your worries and fears and concerns and he will give you peace and rest.

I have been enjoying watching a TV show from the US titled Monk. It is about an obsessive-compulsive detective who brilliantly solves crimes. At the end of one show when the captain of the police thinks his wife is having an affair, he is comforted by a colleague saying, “There’s an old saying: ‘When God closes a door…’”
The captain replies, “When God closes a door, sometimes he breaks your heart.”

In this past couple weeks, cliched sayings have not been of much help. Today is day 13 of the separation of the Village of Hope children from their parents. A diplomat visited the site this week and talked with some of the children. They asked him, “Don’t our mommy and daddy love us anymore?”

A door was closed and I am still waiting for a window to open. It breaks my heart.

In the past couple weeks I have had fantasies of standing like Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh in a power confrontation to have the children of VOH released. I have told God I am willing to be his prophet, all he has to do is tell me and I will go.

I have wanted to pick up the metaphorical sword and fight the battle. But in reading a book for my course of studies, The Open Secret by Lesslie Newbigin, I realized that Jesus has led us into a new way.

In the Old Testament, Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh with plague after plague until he finally relented and allowed Israel to leave Egypt. Elijah boldly confronted the prophets of Baal and defeated them. But this is not what Jesus did. Jesus stepped up to his encounter with the Chief Priest and Pilate and those who were expecting a Moses and Aaron or Elijah power encounter were disappointed.

Peter picked up his sword to attack those who were arresting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus said, (Matthew 26:52–53)
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus had the power to confront the Chief Priest, the Sanhedrin and Pilate and all their soldiers. He could have had an Elijah encounter with them in which the full power of God was displayed in all its wonder, but he chose not to use the power available to him.

Put yourself in the shoes, or perhaps sandals, of the disciples. In the three years the disciples had been with Jesus, the ministry of Jesus kept on growing. The crowds kept getting larger. The miracles kept flowing. Demons kept getting kicked out. This was an increasingly viable ministry. Success was all around them. When Jesus came into the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers, the disciples must have been thrilled to see the power of Jesus increasing. Even greater success was just around the corner. “What great thing will Jesus do tomorrow?” was the question they asked themselves.

Success followed success and then the world turned upside down. Jesus was arrested and he did not resist. Jesus was taken to the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish body. (Mark 14:60–66)
Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 61 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
63 The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. 64 “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
They all condemned him as worthy of death. 65 Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.

This is not the sign of a successful ministry with a bright future, to have the leader arrested and mocked and beaten.

Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor, questioned, sentenced to death, flogged, forced to carry his cross through the crowds, crucified and then his battered and lifeless body was taken to a tomb.

The leader of this growing, increasingly powerful, ever more successful ministry was confronted, humiliated, killed and buried.

Where were the disciples in all this?

Peter, earlier that evening, had boldly proclaimed his loyalty (Mark 14:31)
But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

The disciples left that meal to go with Jesus, caught up in the wonder and power of his ministry, looking forward to the next confrontation with the Jewish leaders. It was true Jesus seemed upset that night, but he would get over it. He often said things they did not understand.

And then Judas came to betray Jesus and the Temple guard took Jesus away. What did the disciples do? (Matthew 26:56)
Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Bold, fearless Peter who stepped out of the boat to walk on water, who declared Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, this Peter snuck along in the shadows, following Jesus and the Temple Guards, stood with a crowd on the perimeter of where Jesus was being questioned, proceeded to deny that he even knew Jesus, denied him three times and then fled in tears and grief at his own disloyalty to Jesus.

Some women who followed Jesus were at the cross when Jesus was crucified. It appears that John was there at the cross but the other disciples were absent. Where were the disciples the day after Jesus was crucified?

John 20:19
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Where were the disciples? Out in the streets protesting the innocence of Jesus and the injustice of his arrest and crucifixion? Were they in the Temple preaching the truth of Jesus? No! They were hiding in a room behind locked doors.

What were the Chief Priest and the other members of the Sanhedrin doing? They went home satisfied. One more threat to their establishment had been taken care of. He had been one of the more troubling problems, but now it had been resolved. Peace and serenity would return. The business in the temple could continue. This upstart from Galilee had been dealt with.

Where was the success of Jesus that so excited the disciples and all the others who followed Jesus? It was scattered and torn, lying among the ashes of failure and defeat.

The Sanhedrin was satisfied. The devil was delighted. He had struck a blow against God himself. God had made a tactical error, sending Jesus to live a human life and the devil exploited this error and killed Jesus.

The devil was the first to realize a mistake had been made. The spiritual battle commenced as Jesus preached to the dead. A day of earth time passed. Another half day of earth time passed. And then out of the ashes of defeat burst the risen Lord Jesus.

About forty days later the disciples were sitting and praying when the Holy Spirit came upon them with power and then they were no longer hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They went out into the Temple and boldly proclaimed the truth of Jesus. (Acts 2:36)
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Imagine the shock and dismay of the Chief Priest when he received word that the followers of Jesus had not dispersed and were now preaching boldly in the Temple courtyard and were healing people just as Jesus had done. They killed Jesus and thought it was over but it appeared Jesus had been cloned and instead of just one man, now there were many doing what Jesus had done.

This is the pattern of the growth of the church. It is when the church is weak and helpless, lying in the ashes of failure and defeat that God brings victory.

This is why, when the church over the centuries of its history has been persecuted, the result has been the growth and expansion of the church. When it looks like all is lost and there is no hope for the future of the church, when people work to exterminate the church, that is when God is about to work and bring resurrection.

The story of Jonah is a wonderful example of this. (Taken from The Open Secret)
Jonah, as a picture of God’s chosen people, is called to go and bear witness in the midst of Nineveh, which represents the world with all its awesome power and wealth.

But Jonah because of his nationalism, and maybe other reasons, runs off in the opposite direction from Nineveh. He boards a ship sailing off into the Mediterranean to evade God’s call and thinks he has succeeded. He goes below deck to sleep – a picture of the church that sleeps in times of peace and prosperity, concerned not with God’s work in the world but only its own comfort.

But God whips up a raging storm and the pagan soldiers pray for deliverance. It is the pagan soldiers who have to wake up Jonah and ask him to pray. When lots are cast Jonah is forced to confess his guilt, that he is running away from God’s call.

Jonah is ready to pay for his sin with his life but the conversion of these pagan soldiers by this improbable follower of God has already begun. They work to save Jonah and themselves and they pray to God. But Jonah must be thrown into the sea. The grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die. The followers of Jesus must suffer. The church must lose its life.

But out of death there is resurrection. A penitent and restored Jonah goes to speak God’s word to the pagan world and his obedience is met by an incredible miracle. Nineveh repents.

Jonah was lying in the belly of the whale, lost and defeated but God brought resurrection. Out of the ashes of Jonah’s life, the sailors gave praise to God and the people of Nineveh were spared.

We see this also in the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. From slavery he was unjustly thrown into prison and from prison he was brought out into the court of Pharaoh and given responsibility for distribution of food to the surrounding area that was affected by a famine.

When he was reunited with his brothers and they feared he would seek revenge for what they had done, he told them (Genesis 50:20–21)
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.

Out of the ashes of the misery and defeat of Joseph, God raised him up to be the one who saved his family during the famine. God provided for his people through the resurrection of Joseph from the ashes of slavery and prison.

This was also the lesson Paul learned through all his preaching in the cities of what is today Greece and Turkey. The people who responded to his preaching about Jesus were not the religious or political or business elite. (I Corinthians 1:26–30)
Brothers [and sisters], think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

Out of the ashes of failed lives, God builds his church.

Paul learned this lesson himself. In the beginning of his ministry he was a bit arrogant, confident of his debating skills, sure he could overcome the objections of people to his message about Jesus with his many talents. But as he endured beating after beating and as the Holy Spirit worked in his life, Paul was transformed into a man who was more humble, who called himself the greatest of all sinners and who knew the power of God that worked through him.

It is with this depth of experience and spiritual insight that he wrote to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we are weak, then we are strong. When the church is lying in the ashes of defeat, then God works most powerfully.

It is upon this paradox that the church is built.

I don’t know what will happen to the children at VOH. I don’t know if the children will ever be reunited with their parents. I don’t know what will happen in Morocco with the new restrictions on Christians who are working to care for the needy in this country. I don’t know what will happen with the pastors of churches around Morocco.

But this I do know. God is already at work preparing to bring resurrection out of the ashes of defeat.

Some might look at this and conclude Christians have developed a loser theology to turn defeat into eventual victory. The world that looks at success in very human terms sees the power and strength of institutions as evidence of their success. Which religion has more followers? Which religion has the fastest rate of growth? Which religion dominates a region?

Sometimes the Christian church has acted in this way and prided itself on its size and influence. But whenever, in the history of the church, the church has had power, it has abused that power and the church has been a destructive influence in the world. Pick up the sword to fight and the church loses. You can see this in church fights with churches splitting. You can see this in power struggles for leadership in a church or denomination. You can see this in countries that have called themselves Christian countries and tried to enforce their belief on everyone in that country.

This is not a loser’s theology. This is how Jesus blazed the way to victory over death. This is the way God builds his church. In our weakness God makes us strong.

Tracy, Zak and I talked about this sermon when we met on Tuesday and Tracy said, “The way God saved me is also the way the Gospel goes forward.”

How did God save you? Were you at the top of your world when you came to faith in Jesus? Were you at the top of the ladder of success with everything going your way when you decided to begin following Jesus? That is not the story with most of us. Most of us were at a point of need and called out for help. In our weakness we were saved.

Let me make three comments about this understanding of how God works.

First, are we to submit passively to every injustice that comes our way? I don’t think so. I have not been quiet about the injustice of the government in taking the parents of VOH away from their children. Anger is a Biblical response to injustice and we are to channel that anger in constructive ways to work for justice.

But I make a distinction between defensive and offensive responses. I think it is constructive to stand up and make noise when an unjust action is taken. So I will continue to speak to journalists to expose the truth about what has happened. I will continue to urge those in authority around the world to put pressure on the Moroccan government to undo the injustice they have committed.

But I will not encourage actions against the health and welfare of this country. I have encouraged people to bless Morocco and bless the people of Morocco. I want to work for this country but against this unjust action of its leaders. I do not work against the leaders. I pray for the leaders. I pray that they will turn and make just decisions. But for their own good, they need to bring justice to the injustice that has been done.

Secondly, while God does not call us into power confrontations with temporal authorities, he does call us into a deeper, more significant battle. When Jesus sent out his disciples (Luke 9:1–2)
he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Jesus has invited us into a deeper, more meaningful battle, the battle against supernatural forces of evil. We have power over demonic forces. So we submit to temporal authority and suffer and allow God to work and we participate with Jesus in the spiritual battle against forces of darkness. Most of us have this backwards. We shy away from spiritual battles and engage in temporal ones.

This is a growth area for the church. As God is at work in this world, we need to learn how to work with him in his battle against demonic forces.

Thirdly, when you suffer from a tragedy in your life or when you experience an embarrassing, humiliating failure, that is not the end. Your life is not over with no hope for the future.

Last week I mentioned four things important to remember when you are grieving because of a tragedy in your life.
Do not be rushed to get over your grief.
When you grieve, do not be afraid to express what you are feeling.
When you experience trauma, despite the evidence, God is in control.
And I said I believe, from God’s eternal perspective, the suffering we experience on earth does not seem as bad as it does to us – just as the joys we experience do not seem as great as we think they are.

I want to add a point to that list that I have learned this week. When you are powerless and helpless, it is at this point that any illusion that you can make things work with your own abilities and determination are stripped away. It is at this point that God can work most powerfully in your life.

This should always be a source of hope. I still think of the children of the Village of Hope day and night. This week I sent in our RICEmail a video I received that was taken when the children heard the news from the Moroccan authorities that their parents were being taken away. Their cries are haunting. I don’t understand why this happened but I know God is at work in this situation and he will bring good out of the evil that was done.

I am still grieving. It is still difficult for me to see my grandchildren having such a loving home with wonderful parents when I know the VOH children have been torn away from their parents. I look on Facebook and wonder how people can talk about such trivial things when this suffering continues.

But I am more confident than I was last week that God is at work and that he will bring resurrection from the ashes of VOH. I speculate about how this might happen but I know God is far more creative than I am. So I pray and I wait to see how he will bring good from the ashes of this tragedy.

I said last week that I was not yet able to sing Blessed Be Your Name with the chorus
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be your name.

But God has been at work in my life. My faith has been strengthened. I am still grieving but I know God is at work.

There are more tragedies than just the separation of the children from their parents at the Village of Hope. Diagro Gabla received word this week that his mother died. Another friend had to deal with her brother’s alcohol and drug addiction.

This is a broken world in need of healing and redemption and despite the evidence, God is at work bringing life out of death, giving hope to those who despair, building faith where there is doubt.

I encourage you to grab hold of hope. God is at work, redeeming this world with all its tragedy and suffering. You don’t have to sing Blessed Be Your Name with assurance. You can sing this with faith, knowing that in your weakness God will make you strong. It is in this light that we sing

Blessed be your name
when the sun is shining down on me
when the world is all
that it should be
Blessed be your name
and blessed be your name
on the road marked with suffering
Though there is pain in the offering
blessed be your name

Every blessing you’ll pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name.

Village of Hope

The events of this week have affected us, some more than others. I want to say upfront that it is not that those who have been most affected have bigger hearts than those who were less affected. It has to do with how intimately connected you are to the Village of Hope and others who were deported.

This past Sunday at least 200 Christians were killed by Muslims in retaliation for attacks in January when 300 Muslims were killed. I read the stories but it did not cause me any emotional pain. Why? Because I don’t care? Not at all. But I have no close connection to those who suffered.

I have been grieving all this week because my connection to the Village of Hope was much more intimate.

When I came to Morocco in January 2000, I was told that I was on the board of the Village of Hope. I said I was not sure I wanted to be and was kindly told that as pastor I had no choice – I was on the board. I ended up being chairman of the board for the past seven or eight years. Although I resigned from the board a year and a half ago to give more time to our association of churches, I discovered that the paperwork had never been handed into the government and Herman informed me on Sunday that I was still chairman and the police had asked lots of questions about me.

I made my first visit to the Village of Hope in March 2000 and immediately fell in love with that place and with the vision it had to take in abandoned children. There were no buildings at that time, only the old building that had been vandalized and had to be torn down.

Rabat International Church was very much a part of the start of this home for children. Members of the church formed the first board for VOH and Errol and Michelle Muller and their daughters lived here in Rabat and were part of our church community before they moved up to Ain Leuh.

In the early years, RIC made five bus trips per year, up and back on a Saturday, to work at VOH. We moved rocks, tore down old walls, painted and did whatever else we could do to help. In addition, I made trips on my own. So I was at the Village of Hope twelve or more times each year.

I remember when Errol and Michelle took in the first child, Adam. If you have been to the VOH website, he is the boy on the left of Errol as Errol was explaining about having to leave them. Adam was a wizened peanut when he was a baby with his forehead wrinkled as if he was in deep thought. I have always had a special place in my heart for Adam and was looking forward to the next few years when we would be able to sit and talk together.

Amir is a sensitive boy with a bright spirit. He has been able to grow up safely with his sensitive nature but I worry what will happen to him in a more rigid, institutional structure.

Sabah was born prematurely and was so small her mother could not tell if she was holding her in a blanket or not. She has grown into a beautiful little girl.

Rafiq has an impish nature.

Hannan is a very mature little girl who needs special attention as she ages.

I don’t know all of the 33 children well, but I see their smiles and their individual personalities.
When I visited VOH the kids would call out to me, “Ammi Jack. Ammi Jack”. “Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack.”

Errol and Herman have been two of my closest friends over my ten years in Morocco. They have been in an accountability group with me. Annie and I have been on vacation with them and their wives. They have visited us with their children when they have come to Rabat.

The ten years at VOH have not been easy. We have weathered several financial and personnel crises over the years, but through it all, we have been friends.

I know many of you have visited VOH on one of our bus trips or on your own. Two of the families in the church went up with Tracy and his family the weekend before this happened. They painted a room in the infirmary and worshiped with the community on Sunday. We are grieving what happened.

Last Saturday, as part of the national crackdown on Christians in Morocco, the police came to VOH in the afternoon to ask questions. They went into the homes, looking in drawers and closets and interviewing the children. They left at 3 in the morning and came back on Sunday with more questions and interviews. On Monday they came at 3:30, took the children into the dining hall and the parents and staff into a building across the parking lot. The children and parents were informed the parents and staff were leaving. The parents heard their children crying across the parking lot, “Mama! Papa! Is this true?”

The parents and families and staff had just seven hours to say goodbye to the children and pack. Herman’s wife was in Holland at the time and never had the opportunity to say goodbye to her children. Herman was negotiating with the authorities up to the last minute, trying to forestall this action.

He tried to pack but could not think of what to take. He told me when we talked on Tuesday that his suitcase with filled with garbage, nothing of worth. He left behind his wedding album and many other personal affects. At one point his biological daughter called him and told him to get some papers stored downstairs in the garage. As he went down the steps, his eight children followed him, “Daddy, are you leaving? Are you leaving?”

One of the older children asked, “Why couldn’t I have real parents?”

With the tears and cries of the children ringing in their ears, the bus pulled out and they were taken to the airport at Casablanca, kept under police guard and flown out the next day.

The first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is the children and how they are handling this separation. When I wake up in the middle of the night I think about the children and their parents. They were abandoned at birth, rescued by parents who have loved them and provided them with a safe, loving home. And now the government that gave permission for these Christians to take in these abandoned babies and encouraged them many times to take in even more than they were able to take – this government has caused these children to be abandoned a second time. This action is a shameful act and we are grieving at the pain that is being experienced.

People responded to my report of what had happened with versions of, “God is in control,” and I replied, “I know this is true with my head, but on an emotional level it seems God has taken a vacation.”

I have had difficulty this week in seeing children playing on the street. I have had difficulty seeing parents walking with their children. I have felt guilty talking with my daughters and grandchildren on webcam. I have felt guilty getting under my covers and sleeping in a comfortable bed. I have felt guilty eating. I have felt guilty watching any TV.

How can I have a normal life when there is so much suffering in the lives of people I love and care for? How can anyone have a normal life in the midst of so much suffering?

Annie led me to the Rich Mullins songs we are listening to this morning and they have encouraged me this week. Hold Me Jesus speaks of my condition and my desperate cry for help.
So hold me Jesus,
’cause I’m shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won’t You be my Prince of Peace

Rich Mullins has ministered to me; let him now minister to you.

Psalm 77

When I received the news from Herman on Monday, I was stunned. I was in shock. I could not believe this was happening. I sent out the RICEmail and other emails to let people know what was happening and finally went to bed. I woke up at 3 and could not sleep. I could not pray other than to cry out for the children and parents.

In the morning I did what I have often told others to do and wrote a psalm expressing my emotions.

What were you doing when the children at VOH were ripped from their parents’ arms? Sleeping on the job? Don’t you care what happens to these children? You are capable of parting the sea and raising the dead – can’t you protect little children?

In fact, the empirical evidence suggests you cannot protect little children. All over the world boys and girls are sold into sex trafficking. Boy and girls are abducted, raped, abused and murdered. So what’s the deal?

We pray that our little son or daughter get over a cold or find a new friend. What a joke! Are your powers so limited you can only lift teensy-weensy weights?

I am so angry I could spit nails. I’m angry at you. I’m angry at the government. [angry at some other things I will not mention now] Who is really in control? Not you, apparently!

This morning as I sit here writing this, the boys and girls of VOH are waking, thinking they might have had a nightmare and then realizing this nightmare is their new reality.

The parents and staff are waking up, if they were able to sleep at all, and wondering how they will ever recover from this hole in their heart.

This is a death experience. Evil has won. Evil has triumphed.

[some expression of creative retaliation]

I know you are there but I do not understand what you are doing. This was within your power to stop and you did not stop it.

Why?

I know these psalms are supposed to bring me to trust and confidence in you but I still have a long way to go.

If you cannot protect these children, then end it now. Call it all to a halt and bring us all to account.

And then I did what I tell people not to do – I opened my Bible and came to Psalm 77. I read just a couple verses and then headed off to pray at AMEP. We talked about the events and then I said I wanted to read this psalm, which I had just started to read.

I was amazed at how well it expressed what I was experiencing. In my psalm I accused God of being on vacation but he was not on vacation when he led me to this psalm.

I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands
and my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
I mused, and my spirit grew faint.

The psalmist was grieving as I was grieving. I don’t know why he was grieving but I took comfort in knowing that grief has been the experience of people in every generation. What we are grieving is not a unique event.

In the adult Sunday School this past week Paul Miller spoke about helplessness as being a great place to begin when you pray. I certainly felt that this week. I stretched out my untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted.

About noon on Tuesday Zak, Elliot and I drove up for a meeting in Tangier. On the way we stopped for lunch and I said I would pray for our meal – but I could not. Praying for a meal is not a formality for me. When I thank God for the food I am about to eat, I recognize my dependance on God for everything I need and I could not bring myself to say I trusted God to provide what I need.

That night we were at a church service in Tangier and the pastor asked me to speak about the Village of Hope and pray for them. I told them some stories of the children and broke down crying and when I prayed I cried and ended with saying I could not trust God right now. So the congregation prayed for me.

Throughout the day on Tuesday I talked with Herman. He asked if I would speak to journalists because he could not keep reliving the horror of what happened. We wept together on the phone. We probably talked together five or six times on Tuesday and we repeatedly wept.

As much as I have grieved, I cannot imagine the pain of the parents and their families and the staff who were taken away.

Wednesday and Thursday I was busy with phone calls, skype, emails, interviews.

And then Friday morning, for the first time, I was able to write in my journal. “You are in control – despite the evidence – you are in control. Help me to have faith to wait and see the final outcome.”

If you were not close to VOH and the grief for you has not been strong, there will be another time in your life when the grief will be strong because the suffering will be close to you. And so let me share a few things I think are important when grieving.

First, do not be rushed to get over your grief. It is OK to spend time reliving the events of whatever tragedy you are dealing with. People around you may want to rush you to get past this stage, but do not let them rush you. Take your time. The greater the tragedy, the longer it will take for you to get over it. The closer you are to the tragedy, the longer it will take for you to get over it. Especially if you are a Christian leader, people want you to stand up and give a positive report. “I suffered and doubted but now I am over that and am giving God glory.”

It is more important that you find healing for the hurt you have suffered than that you give a positive report. It is more important that you model authentic living than giving an uplifting report.

Secondly, when you grieve, do not be afraid to express what you are feeling. Do not try to be nice. Do not try to be a “good Christian”. Express what you are feeling. Write it down. Write a psalm. God does not want you to be nice, he wants you to be real and honest.

Last week Tracy talked about this in his children’s sermon. If you are angry, then expressing your anger is what God wants you to do. Expressing your anger is a far better prayer than giving God superficial praise that you do not, deep down, feel.

God has big shoulders, he can take whatever you give him. God knows the pain you are feeling. God can see where you cannot see so he will accept your anger and continue to love you and care for you.

Thirdly, when you experience trauma it seems that God is out of control or absent or uncaring. But this is not true. Despite the evidence, God is in control. God is the all-powerful preexisting creator of the universe who chose to love us and sacrifice himself for us.

At the cross, it seemed that God had failed. The devil thought he had won. To all the world who watched what happened on Calgary, the ministry of Jesus had failed. It had been a great three years but now it was all over.

But never count God out. Three days later the bonds of death were broken and Jesus rose from the dead. From the ashes he rose up in power to his exalted position.

As Rich Mullins wrote in the song we will be singing,
Where are the nails
that pierced His hands
Well the nails have turned to rust
But behold the Man
He is risen
And He reigns
In the hearts of the children
Rising up in His name
Where are the thorns that drew His blood
Well the thorns have turned to dust
But not so the love
He has given
No it remains
In the hearts of the children
Who will love while the nations rage

In the midst of grief all we can see are the nails and the thorns but God, from his heavenly perspective sees beyond the suffering to the coming triumph.

And fourthly, I believe, from God’s eternal perspective, the suffering we experience on earth does not seem as bad as it does to us – just as the joys we experience do not seem as great as we think they are.

We are locked into a temporal view of events, good, bad and ugly. We see only this life with what it can offer. We have eighty or so years and look forward to the reward of a nice retirement with children and grandchildren and a nice home and exciting vacations and think that is the goal. When any of these do not happen or are taken away from us, we are crushed.

We strain to have a heavenly perspective but what we most clearly see is this world with all its limitations.

A young child suffers a disease and dies and we ask why. The truth is that from our perspective we cannot understand why. Even if God were to tell us why, we would be unable to understand. The limitations of our minds and even imaginations do not allow us to understand all that happens.

So over and over again we have to submit and come to a point where we say, “God, I do not understand but I believe – despite the evidence I believe.”

The writer of psalm 77 expressed his honest emotions:
I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.

My heart mused and my spirit inquired:
7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never show his favor again?
8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
Has his promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?
Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

And then he chose to remember all that God has done.
Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.
13 Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

And so this morning, in the midst of our grief we choose to remember. We celebrate each Sunday Jesus who gave up the privileges of heaven to be born a man, to live among us, to die for us so we could be forgiven, to break the chains of death so we could have hope in the midst of defeat.

We are going to practice what I am calling defiant praise. Despite the hurt and pain we are going to give praise to God and declare the truths of our faith.

A logical song for us to sing today would be Blessed Be Your Name with the chorus
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be your name.

I’m not quite ready to sing that song. Perhaps we will sing it next week. But I will defy my hurt and sing praise to God.

Listen to the words from Isaiah 61:1-3 that Jesus quoted when he announced his ministry.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

Those who mourn and grieve will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. This is the promise for the parents, families and staff of the Village of Hope. This is the promise for the 33 children of VOH. This is the promise for all of God’s children who grieve.