And it is all up to...God

We pray that God will not let that be the final status of their lives; that God will provide the resources and that they will grab hold of them, in order to get out of that pit.

--Some construct a fantasy world:

“Problem?, what problem?

I don't see any problem.”

One of our folks discovered this week that the head-in-the-sand approach to crisis really doesn't work, and it took timely intervention by several family members to save a bad situation from becoming even worse!

--Others may develop a bitter anger.

This week I learned of a high school young person who is terribly angry.

“There is no such person as a loving God,” this person lashes out.

“A good and loving God would not have taken my parent in a car accident, and also snatched away my grandparent in cancer.”

“Don't talk to me about God or church or anything else,” the person announced.

I told this person's remaining grandparent, “God is going to have a challenge cracking the hard shell that this young person is cementing around the pain and sorrow.

You'll just have to keep loving and loving, and praying that God will yet use that love that is patterned on the love of God the Father for his only dear Son to do what we cannot do, to get through when we cannot.”

--And then there is a fourth reaction that we might have to the moment of crisis.

Some fall into black despair.

Some construct a fantasy world.

Some develop bitter anger.

And still others actively wrestle with unknown forces.

Let's hop back to Genesis and remember the story of Jacob, the trickster, the one who did sneaky things that were legal but immoral,

and in turn he was cheated and treated immorally as well.

He had fled from his angry brother and lived for years far away.

But now it is time to return home and face the past and the unknown future.

He gets everything ready that he can, and sends everyone on ahead, and he remains alone on the other side of the stream the night before the impending meeting with his brother.

In the night he wrestles with an unknown force, refusing to let go.

“Tell me your name,” he demands of the unknown assailant.

His question is not answered, but a blessing is given to Jacob.

He gets a name change: from Jacob which means “supplanter” to Israel, which means “God rules.”

Not much, perhaps, but enough now to go on, to meet his brother, to live.

In our shadowy times of crisis, we ask

the same question.

“Tell me your name,” we demand of the forces that grasp us in the darkness of not knowing.

And our thinking begins.

If there is God, such a one must be before all else.

Eternal is the Father...Son...Spirit.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten;

Indeed, God is the one who has made all that we see and enjoy, while:

Uncreated is the Father, uncreated is the Son, uncreated is the Spirit.

All around us are the gifts of this God.

“Tell me you name,” we demand.

The most that was granted to Moses of old was “I AM”, as much a verb as a noun.

And we puzzle over its ambiguity.

But then Jesus is sent among us, to make things clear,

For this is the true faith that we believe and confess:

That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man.

He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother....

If this assertion from the Creed is true, then we do have a name for God, and it is Jesus the Christ.

What he says and does in life, in death, and in resurrection gives the part of the answer that we need.

When he prays and calls upon “Father,' that settles the question of our origin.

When he says that he will send the Advocate, the Spirit, as we heard in last week's Gospel, that gives us comfort for right now.

When he reveals himself to the disciples as resurrected body, that gives us hope for our final destiny.

The Father is God, ...Son. ...Spirit,

and yet there are not three gods but one God.

And in this Trinity,

no one is before or after, greater or less than the other;

but all three persons are in themselves co-eternal and co-equal.

When God comes to us, we get the whole of God, not a portion of him.

When we are reading scripture together and pondering it deeply, it is the whole of God that comes pouring into our ears and minds and hearts.

When we enter the drowning waters of Baptism, it is the whole of God in Christ Jesus that brings us through and vows to remain with us by his Holy Spirit.

When we gather at the table, it is Father Son and Holy Spirit who are the Body of Christ in our hand.

What difference do these assertions from the Athanasian Creed make in our lives?

Are they just fancy phrases made up by people who like to argue about difficult subjects?

In our dark times, they make all the difference in the world.

In our struggles, even the darkest ones that seem to be leading to death, we have one who really does know all about them.

He has been there before.

He is flesh and blood who lived and was executed and lives again.

Thus a promise he makes simply must be true because no limitations or conditions can interfere with it...not even death.

Could it be true that in the shadowy times, God is not wrestling with us in order to defeat us. That would be too easy.

Instead God is busy trying to re-direct our thoughts and actions,

trying to get us to acknowledge our source within the mind of God,

to anticipate that he is yet planning fresh things with us,

to confidently look at what they might be today.

One writer has observed that we are such anxious people these days.

Could it be, he wonders, if we have taken on too much responsibility, responsibility that does not belong to us?

Are we acting as though there is no God who creates, calls, and sustains, so that it is all left up to us?

We have to do it or it won't get done. We have to think hard, work hard, care hard, and get our lives in order, or we will lose our lives.

I come to church on Sunday in order to find out how I can lead a better life and how I can get motivated to live that better life.

Can we hear the problem with statements such as these?

There is no room for God in them!

It is all up to me. I come to learn how I can lead a better life. What am I to do? How can I work out my own salvation?

But you and I are not God.

It is not all up to us.

In the final analysis, it is up to God.

We're not wrestling with an unknown or unknowable force in the dark, but with a determined and persistent God who is urging us, calling to us, shaping us in ways we haven't seen.

Our lives are lived in response to his good gifts.

God is not afflicting us, even though we are quick to blame when things go wrong.

It may be due to our own sin, the sin of our neighbor, or the complicated ways of nature.

But God is still reaching out to us, through the problems, or in spite of the problems.

We need to be reminded, as St. Paul says: Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8)

It is up to God.

And the very name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the sign that our faith is not misplaced,

that our wrestling has a point,

that the last word to us will be good,

and that both in times of joy and times of sadness we can join in the hymn of the faithful in every generation and the hosts of heaven and sing

Holy, holy, holy is this Lord God, the one who was, who is, who ever will be, perfect in power, in love, and in purity.

It is all up to this God.

What a relief that is! Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.