Warnings and Love

I’m glad to be here with the sermon this morning. Pastor Ken has been on vacation and will be back soon getting ready for the busy Advent season which is coming up, along with his retirement. So I’m filling in with the sermon today.

Look at this morning's bible readings! Wow! Multiple warnings saying life will may have some terribly frightening times, and that we are to stay strong trusting God through the tough times when they come.

There have certainly been some awfully traumatic times in history since these words in our readings were written down nearly two thousand years ago, so we can say they’ve come true.

The storyline of history seems to alternate times of peace, broken up by calamities of war and natural disasters.

If fact if you just look at the major wars in US history, you’ll see this clearly:

· 1775 Revolutionary war

· 1812 War of 1812

· 1861 Civil war

· 1917 World War I

· 1941 World War II

Look at those dates. There’s roughly about 50 years between these wars. And then we’ve had minor wars too, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq one and two and others.

I was born in the early Sixties. This current period of relative peace since World War II is not the norm.

Reading the history of Europe shows they were fighting most of the time! Fighting with each other! Fighting the Turks! Europe is about half the size of the continental US and they fought a lot, from Roman times right up to the second World War.

But here we are now, thankfully, in a rare time of relative peace in this country. These verses can serve to remind us of a larger picture. Bad times have happened, they probably will happen again, don’t be surprised when they do.

Perhaps because we’ve had a relatively peaceful time for a while we get all wrapped up in other things. Silly things, like TV shows that show awful things. Odd, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why we had comforting family shows after World War II. We’re drawn to the different.

Anyway - our scriptures today tell us that bad things will happen, bad times will come and go, but that we should keep our eyes on God and our hearts rooted in His promises to care for us.

My Mother used to take a moment before I left her house to drive home to Williamsport. She’d look at me and very seriously say, “You be careful!”.. I knew what she meant. It included a whole lot of things at once. It meant, be careful, don’t be in an accident. It also meant, I love you and I can’t imagine you not being here due to an accident. It also meant, I wish you didn’t have to leave so soon.

My brother heard the same thing from Mom, since she loved us both the same. But I don’t know if he heard what I heard. He may have heard a controlling voice requesting one more thing from a busy person. Sometimes he seemed to sluff off the goodbye advice.

But I knew what she meant. It was love based. It may have come out strong, but it was her way of saying we, my brother and I, were priceless to her.

My Mother In Law, has a similar saying to Lou and his siblings growing up. She’d say “Watch out for the Kooks!” And he knew what she meant too, she was saying her kids were the world to her.

And there may be some of that in these warning verses. God urges us to keep alert, stay faithful, make time for him.

God loves us. God loves you. I wish I could communicate in some better way a glimpse of how much God loves you. Each and every one of you. Immensely. Intensely.

The proof of God’s love for us is JESUS. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus is the key to the whole thing. God looks at us through the eyeglasses of Jesus and we are made perfect, without sin, without stain, PERFECT to him. Because of God’s Love for us …. JESUS.

This love is beyond anything else in our life, but we can’t see it while we busily zoom around from one everyday task to another. We see it as we read the bible and other encouraging Christian books, we sense it as read and silently pray. We may feel it as we pray for one of our family who is in great need.

Life may seem to be going well enough now that we can almost get through it without God. We can almost handle it ourselves, we seem to try to, don’t we?

Think about it - why were the churches full after World War One and Two? People knew they needed God’s help and comfort! They KNEW it! Now? We can almost get through life without thinking about God.

The tough times draw us to God. The tough times draw us to hold on to God as if He’s all that there is.

If the past is anything to go by, bad times, troubles, wars, revolutions, crises will come again. Let us so build up the church in the times of peace, that when the rest of the population has need of God, the churches will be standing strong and will be a place of rest to those under attack.

Oh - we have something coming up to worry about, don’t we? Our pastor of more than 20 years is retiring at the end of 2016. What will we do? How will we continue? Who is going to do all the things that pastor did? Like visit the sick, community outreach, sermons, services, Morning Prayer five days every week?

Things change. Bad things might happen. Cling to God - He Loves You.

I’m sure you’ve heard that Messiah Lutheran Church in South Williamsport lost their pastor for an extended medical leave due to a car crash. Everything changed in one second.

Things change. Bad things might happen. Cling to God - He Loves You.

And we had an election last week, half the people are generally pleased and half are not. Things change. Bad things might happen. Cling to God - He Loves You.

Well, the God you and I serve, knows that tough times happen, and He left quite a bit of guidance in the Bible about what to do when we are afraid for the future. Lean on Him. rely on Him. Put all of your trust in Him and pray.

We’re going to make it through this tough time. Closer to God. We’re going to make it. With God.

Amen!

Prayer:

Father God, grant us clarity that we may always distinguish your voice
from the noise and confusion of the world. And grant us courage, so
that when we are challenged, we shall stand steadfast with Christ.

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.