"It could be worse"

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?” -Matthew 6:26-31

It always amazes me, when I read stories about Jesus, at how well he knows us. In these words from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to his closest friends. With them, he draws a picture of natural beauty to illustrate a point. Birds don’t worry about where their next meal will come from. Flowers don’t fret over what they look like to the outside world. Both of these things: the birds and the flowers, Jesus says, are content to let God handle it. The meals, the way they look, their entire life, he says, are completely in God’s hands. Take some time this week to watch them: the birds and the flowers. If you do, then you’ll see that they are just fine with this arrangement.

Peppered throughout his illustration, Jesus uses the word “worry.” “Worry” is a word that is completely human. If you’re human you worry, and Jesus knows it. He knows us well enough to know that we spend a lot of time in life worried about things. Deep down, we know he’s right, no matter how hard or how often we worry, it won’t change a thing. In the end, no matter how much worrying we do, it won’t add a single minute to our life.

Two weeks ago, I gathered with the family of one of the members of our church who had passed away last December. Stella’s family gathered for a memorial service to remember her and lay her to rest. Stella was a woman who was most at home in the natural world, in the outdoors, living close to the plants and the animals. Her life was lived on a farm. Over the many years of her very full life she became intimately connected to that farm. She loved the land, the plants, and the animals.

I used to look forward to visits with Stella, because I found if I was worried about something before I went to see her, after our visit it really didn’t seem to matter. Often, we would sit at the kitchen table and after I had asked how she was doing, she would tell me. She would talk about the intense pain in her knees. She would tell me how difficult it was to do simple things. She would speak about how frustrating life had become. When all she wanted to do was go out and weed the garden or plant something, or feed the many varieties of birds that lived just outside her door, the aches and pains, the physical limitations often prevented her. As she spoke, I could hear how passionate she was about the life outside, and how much she wanted to be able to do all those things she had done for so long. Then after she had finished listing off all the problems and all her frustrations, she would always look me right in the eye, and the sad look would vanish from her face and a smile would appear and she would say: “But…it could be worse…it could be worse.” I think she could have trademarked that saying. It was a favorite of hers that I heard each time I went to see her.

Jesus has a trademark on a concept of his own, and in all things it seems to be “Trust God.” When you wake up in the morning, when you go throughout your day, and when you lay down at night: “Trust God.” Stella knew this idea well, too. She knew that each and every day, no matter what the day would bring: whether it would be more aches and pains or some relief, whether it was bright sunshine or driving rain, whether it was good news or bad…she knew that through it all God was with her, and with us all. How well acquainted are you and I with trusting God for everything? If you’re like me, then you could use always use some help in this area.

Jesus told his closest friends about the importance of trusting God. He did it by using just a few loaves and a couple of bread and fish to feed thousands of people. He did it by reaching out to touch blind eyes and leprous hands. He did it by telling stories about birds and flowers, and the beauty of the world God made for us and for them. He did by being a friend to those who had no friends and a savior to those who had been told that God didn’t care about them. In the end, Jesus teaches us all about trusting God by literally throwing his life into God’s hands. On the cross, Jesus shows us what it really means to trust God completely. With the new life that God raises him up to, God shows us that it always pays off.

Each day, when we trust God, one thing that’s bound to happen is that we will recognize that our lives are rarely, if ever, perfect, but God’s love always is. Even when we feel like it couldn’t possibly get any worse, we’re reminded that with God at our side, we are never alone for anything that life throws our way. Stella was someone who knew this, and I suspect she taught it to those of us who were lucky to know her. She taught it with the way she lived her life. Today, after a lifetime of knowing that it could always be worse, now she lives completely in the perfect love of God. One day, we will too.

God isn't afraid of messes

I’m told that the word in Hebrew is “tohu wabohu” and that it means: “formlessness and normlessness.” If I could put it into my own words, I would call it a “mess”. Not just any mess, either, but the kind of mess that you really don’t know what to do with. The sort of mess that stops you in your tracks, and all you can do is stand there and stare at it. This is the kind of mess that you just don’t quite know how to begin picking up. “tohu wabohu” a chaotic, formless, ball of confusion. In the beginning, this is what God starts with. In Genesis 1:2 we read about it: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void…” God starts with a formless void, tohu wabohu.

The word in ancient Greek is distazo. It can mean: to wrestle with two thoughts at once. It’s what happens to us when the extent of our faith is only “maybe”. The word describes what it feels like to have a heart that’s overflowing with questions. In Matthew 28:17, it’s where Jesus leaves his disciples: “When they saw him they worshipped him and they doubted.” Jesus leaves them with doubts. He departs while their hearts are bursting with questions. He takes off when their faith is at just that “maybe” level.

Think back to the last time you had doubts. If you’re like me, then most likely, right now you’re thinking back a matter of minutes, or hours, or, if you’re lucky, days. Think back to the last time you can remember when you could honestly say that your life was completely free from chaos? Was there ever a time?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus leaves his disciples in this condition, on their knees worshipping him, while their hearts are still full of questions, while their minds are wrestling with all kinds of competing thoughts, while their faith, if we’re really being honest, is an absolute mess. You can almost hear them saying: “Let’s get this straight: you came down to earth, you died, then you came back from the dead, and now after all of that, you’re leaving again?!” What they’re experiencing is chaos. Chaotic faith at the rollercoaster ride Jesus has just taken them on. Chaotic questions about what happens next. He was the center of their universe, and now they’re wondering what they will do without him. We know the feeling when it happens. Often, we call it a mess.

It’s hard, most days to look at the world around us and not see a mess. I don’t need to list the places, you know them. If you turned on the tv this week or read a newspaper, you saw the chaos in our world. If you spoke to a co-worker who was wading through the struggles of life, then you heard it in their voice. If you went out of your house, walked down the street, passed by strangers looking for meaning, then you caught a glimpse of it. All of it points to a messy world that is rarely as orderly as we would like. Then, there are the messes in our own lives. The chaos we can’t seem to bring order to. Everywhere we look, we see that we still live in a chaotic world. And yet, we still worship…and, we still have our doubts. We’re just like the disciples.

If, when you look at your life, you feel that’s the case, then you ought to be thankful. If your life is messy, you are blessed. If you have chaotic places in your relationships, job, inner person, then rejoice! Rejoice because it seems as though God does his best work when things are messy. Think back to that formless void that was there in the beginning. What did God do with it? God reached down. God touched it. God took it in his hands and pulled the chaos apart and made things like: light, day and night, sky, land, plants, fruits, vegetables, all kinds of animals, and last but certainly not least, humans! Out of the chaos, out of the mess, God made you and I.

God takes that ball of messiness that is swirling around in all different directions, and this is what God makes out of it. And then, God gives every bit of it to you and I. Think about that for a minute. God creates order out of confusion, beauty out of formlessness, a world that makes sense out of something that had no sense to it at all, and then…God gives it to people like you and I. God gives the world to people whose lives often swirl with doubt. God trusts people whose lives are often messy with the sun, moon, and stars.

God doesn’t seem to mind working with messes. At the end of a ministry in which blind people saw, paralyzed people walked, hungry people were fed, and sinful people were forgiven, Jesus, God’s own Son, winds up in a real mess. The crowds are shouting for his life, the disciples are scattering in all different directions, the cross is being raised, the nails are being sharpened, and God is in Heaven, somehow ready to deal with all of it. Somehow, God is ready to reach down to touch the pain and the rejection, the sorrow and the shock, the death and the silence, and make something new out of all of it. Ready, once again to create new life out of a senseless, formless, messy void.

When it’s all done, after the death is conquered and the darkness is dispelled, and the Son of God rises to new life and appears to disciples who worship, even as they doubt. Then, once again God reminds us “I made all of this possible, and I’m giving it to you” Jesus stands on the mountainside and tells his worshipfully doubtful, his sanctified messy people to go into all the world with his blessing, with his forgiveness, and with his life. No matter how messy, no matter how chaotic, no matter how unsure you are, he says “Go and tell them about me. I’m the God who works miracles out of messes.”

The next time you feel overwhelmed, uncertain, full of doubt, or like your life is a complete mess, remember, God isn’t afraid of messes. In fact, God does some of his best work with the messiest stuff there is: tohu wabohu, distazo, and you and I!

When you know you can't fail...

What would you say, that you’ve never said before, if you knew you couldn’t fail

What would you do, that you’ve never done before, if you knew you couldn't fail?

What chance would you take if you knew, that no matter what, you could not fail?

I don’t know if he had the chance or the time to think about these questions, but on the first Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) that's what Peter did. When the gust of wind blew through the house without warning. When he and his friends started speaking uncontrollably in ways they had never done before. When all of it drew a crowd and people in the crowd asked “What does this mean?” and others said “It doesn’t mean anything, they’re full of new wine.” In the middle of all of this chaos…Peter did something….he stood up. In the middle of all of this excitement…Peter said something. In the middle of the winde and the noise…Peter took a chance.

Why did he do it? Maybe he did what he did…said what he said…took the chance that he took…because long before that, someone built him up. Someone told him: “You are a rock” and then he said “I’m building all of this, and I'm beginning with you.” And then, that someone stayed with him through thick and thin. He answered his questions and calmed his fears. When the storms raged and the doubts arose, that person stuck around. Even when the time came for that faithful companion to leave, he didn’t depart before telling Peter: "Remember, I'm with you always, until the end of time.” Long before the wind blew and the flames blazed and the people gathered and asked questions or sneered at him…Peter was given the courage, the confidence, and the gift to do what he did that day: to stand up, to say something, to take a chance, all because Jesus took the time in his life to build him up.

Of course, you never know you won't fail. There is never a surefire guarantee. You and I never know with 100 percent certainty that when we stand up, when we speak, when we take a chance that what we do will work out the way we hope that it might.

So, what do you do when the wind blows? When you feel that spark of inspiration well up inside you and burst into a flame? What do you do when you have the urge to take a chance? To say something? To do something? Do you act on that urge? Do you see it through? Do you ever actually get up out of your seat? Do you ever actually open your mouth and speak?

Or, do you sit there and let it pass. Do you hope that someone else will do something or say something? When the wind blows and the fires ignite, are they followed immediately by a voice in the back of your mind that reminds you “That will never work!” or wonders “What would they say about you if you did that?” or “What would they think of you if you said that?” When you hear that voice, do you then let it get up quietly and close the door that the wind had blown open and pour water on the flames that had sprung up? So that, in the end, you don’t really do or say anything? You don’t really take the chance at all?

The chance that Peter took that first Pentecost made a difference. If you fast-forward to the end of the speech he had made, this is what happened next (Acts 2:37-42). After he stood up, after he spoke, after he took a chance, someone in the crowd said: “Now what do we do?” And Peter told them “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized.” And do you know what? That person in the crowd did just that, and when he followed Peter down to the river that afternoon, some of the rest of the crowd followed him. Do you know how many? 3,000! 3,000 people began a closer relationship with God that day, because Peter took a chance! It was chance was that began when Jesus built him up, walked alongside him, and convinced him that he couldn’t fail.

What did Jesus say because he knew he couldn’t fail? He said things like: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me…and drink.” He called to people with words like: “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” He told people: “Your sins are forgiven.” He said all these things and more because he knew he couldn’t fail at these promises. He knew he could deliver on them.

What did Jesus do when he knew he couldn’t fail? He put his hands on blind eyes and opened them so that they could see. He invited the lame to walk, and they did! He called into the grave of a dead man and asked him to live again, and he did! He did all these things and more because he knew that when he touched those sightless eyes, those immobile legs, and even the darkness of death, that he could change all of it.

What chance did Jesus take because he knew he couldn’t fail? He took the chance to bet everything he had on us. He took the chance to pick up the cross and carry it for you. He took the chance to give his own life because he knew, that with God at his side, he could not fail.

Jesus did all of this and more, and he did it because he trusted God completely, and he knew that “with God all things are possible.”

There is no guarantee that anything that we say or do, or any chance that we take, will be successful. But there is one surefire way to make sure we will fail- don't say anything, don't do anything, don't ever take any chances. & you WILL fail. It’s guaranteed.

The next time the wind blows through your house, and the spark of inspiration ignites inside of you, before you do anything else, remember that Jesus' words were for you and this could be your Pentecost. This could be your chance to say something and make a difference in someone else’s life. This could be your chance to do something and change the world for the better. This could be your chance to take a chance because you know that with God on your side, you have nothing to be afraid of.

So, when the world looks at you sideways and says you're full of it, stand up, say something, do something, take a chance, because who knows? Maybe that's the moment the wind is blowing through your house and the fire is blazing in your heart, and God is standing right beside you, just waiting to see what you'll do with it!