Pastor Jeff began a new sermon series this morning on who
God is. Perhaps I should confess that whenever I find pastors these days proliferating
their ongoing series of sermons, I always find myself wondering who I am
hearing - Pastor, or John Maxwell, or Bill
Hybels, or Max Lucado, or . . .
I can’t say I never borrowed a sermon I heard preached or
lifted from a book, but I generally edited the outline so as to make it my
sermon without putting up quote marks. So, this conversation is probably
one-sided and unfair. I find Jeff an excellent teaching pastor, Whatever it is worth, Plato the Greek Philosopher, also left us a small jewel of wisdom worthy of the ages, when he concluded
that “The life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
It could be reasonably claimed that our information age is the
most psychologized, analyzed, and criticized (critiqued) of any age in modern history.
However, over indulgence and preoccupation, with self-examination, can make
life more difficult. I would even go so far as to suggest that life without
examination most surely leaves life with an inadequate sense of meaning.
Various theorists are committed to selling the general
public on the idea of unlimited human achievement and self-directed living. That
fits into the mindset of most secularists and humanists, for our formerly
Christianized culture is rapidly turning rabidly secularist, humanist, and democratic.
Such persons argue that we have no limits, that we can
change our lives, and that we are only held back by the limitations of our own belief
system. On one hand, numerous new-age thinkers promise us we can be in total
control of our own destinies. Some few will confess, however, that despite the
best efforts at our being TAed, TMed, Rolfed, assertiveness –trained,
consciousness-raised, and blissed out, they frequently find living more
difficult than ever.
A while back, I read a small volume of sermons entitled A Glory In It All. Written by John Knox in
1985 and published by Word at Waco, it
contained the post-eighty reflections of a man wanting to live-out his
remaining days with as much intention as possible. Knox recalled the biblical
story of the Rich Young Ruler meeting Jesus and concluded, “We all come to life
running and eager; too often we limp out of it sorrowful and disillusioned.”
Sooner or later, most of us will, like Knox, encounter the
fact that we will never achieve the dreams of our youth. A few fall short of expectations.
Others experience disappointment with their achievements. As a youth, I envisioned a certain level of greatness. Decades
later, I find myself a well-seasoned senior, and the years continue piling high
on life’s beach at high tide during a storm. As the waves continue rolling in
with unrelenting frequency, I find myself forced more and more to accept the
limitations of both my human abilities and the inevitability of my pending mortality.
Experiencing that truth, suggests Knox, is one of the “most
serious crises of our lives,” yet out of it comes new opportunities. Seldom
does crisis ever enter our lives without bringing with it a positive
opportunity for discovering a new and
better possibility. These come as gifts from God.
Rather than waiting until life is about to conclude; they
come throughout life bringing equal opportunity to each and every individual,
freely and without discrimination. They come offering all of the “greatness” of
God that our hearts can possibly hold.
Thus, Sidney Lanier’s verse in “The Marshes of Glynn” becomes
highly suggestive and meaningfully expressive for me when he writes,
As the marsh
hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will
build me a nest on the greatness of God.
I will fly in
the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom
that fills all the space ‘twixt the marsh and the skies.
By so many
roots as the marsh-hen sends in the sod
I will
heartily lay me ahold on the greatness of God.
But, back to Pastor Jeff’s sermon on the God
Who Is. Remember when God called Moses at the burning bush? Remember what Moses
heard when he demanded to know who was calling him? God said, “I am who I am!” - I am is Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end ...
When Moses learned who was calling, he discovered who he
was: not just another Hebrew slave baby headed for extinction, he was the
Hebrew Prince that a mother’s faith led into the House of Pharoah where he
would grow up and become the Messiah of the Exodus.
In laying “ahold of the greatness of God” we discover the
truth of life thyat is stuffed full with the abundance and greatness of The God
Who Is. . .
I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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