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 Sunday, September 9, 2007 Sermon: "In Place of God or in God's Place" Scripture: Genesis 50: 15-21 (see also Isaiah 6:1-13 In these days and times it is easy to think that the world is out of control. I mean not just out of control, but out of God's control. It doesn't help that we are constantly bombarded by all forms of media with bad news. Good news doesn't sell, doesn't raise ratings. And as if news sources weren't enough, now the World Wide Web is filled with Blogs and Wiki's providing access to a vast array of opinions on world issues. With all of this on our television screens, in our newspapers, on the radio, and on our computers, more than ever before in history, we are aware of all the world's problems. What are we to think? It is easy to think that the world is out of control. It is also easy to think that God ought to do something about it. I catch myself wondering how God can let things get out of control, get in such bad shape. I suppose that should be, "How can God let us put things into such bad shape?" When is God going to do something to bring humanity back under control and get salvation history back on track? The most frequently heard and extreme version of this question today is cast in terms of the expectation that we will soon see Armageddon. You know about Armageddon: the forces of evil get so out of control that they can only be put down by the Second Coming of Christ, precipitating a battle to the finish between the forces of good and evil. I was recently surprised to see a special program about Armageddon and the likelihood of its immanent arrival on CNN. It seems like we are all wondering when God's going to fix things.
In the Genesis story this morning we have a neat story that shows Joseph befriending his brothers and reassuring them that God can, and will, fix everything. Don't be afraid. But, I want to take you to two other scripture lessons this mornig as well. First, Isaiah 6: 1-13: Isaiah was wondering if, and when, God was going to fix things for him when King Uzziah died in 742 B.C. That would have been about 2,750 years ago. Isaiah could see that things were a mess; the previously united Kingdom of Israel had split into two kingdoms; Judah in the South and Israel in the North. They were located in the great battlefield between warring superpowers of that time, Assyria and Egypt. The new leader of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Ahaz, would have to decide where to hang the fate of the Northern Kingdom: on political alliances or on trust in God. Given the political realities of the time, there was unfortunately no really good, long-term political solution. But it was hard then and it is hard now for a political leader to choose God over politics. So Ahaz made some political alliances, a decision that was ultimately to have a disastrous outcome for the Northern Kingdom, leading to the exile. While he was wondering about what God was going to do, Isaiah encountered God in the Temple. It was a pretty spectacular scene. God on a high throne, holy robe filling the Temple. These six-winged Seraphs were attending God, flying around, shouting, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; Isaiah said, "The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke." (6:4) An encounter with God can be pretty awesome. Even this person Isaiah who we now know as one of the greatest prophets among the Hebrew people found it a little disconcerting. And he did what most of us do when we encounter God. Think of it as being naked before God, he got his disclaimer in fast. Isaiah said, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips?!" (6:5) I don't blame Isaiah, do you? There he was suddenly aware he was in the presence of God, and all he could think about was how unclean he was, how unfit he was to face God. Until that moment, Isaiah was an ordinary person, like you and me-ordinary, unclean, and certainly unfit to be in the presence of God, let alone to represent God. Remember the story in Luke (5: 1-11), when Peter, an ordinary fisherman, really recognized who Jesus was, what did he do? "?when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!'" (5:8). We may say that God knows everything, but I bet we all harbor the outside hope that God doesn't really know EVERYTHING about us. So when we encounter God, we are overcome with an acute awareness of our own ugly shortcomings and inadequacy. The truth is that even our sense of inadequacy may be an example of our tendency to be arrogant. My sin is so ugly that it would shock God. But it doesn't. Isaiah no sooner blurted out his disclaimer than a Seraph swooped down, "holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.' (6:6-7) Our sin turns out to be nothing in the face of God's capacity to forgive. Isaiah's sin was blotted out in an instant. Was Peter's sin in the Gospel of Luke blotted out? Jesus dispelled it with humor. To this fisherman he said, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." It appears not to matter to God how ordinary we may be or just how awful we think we are. O.K., so Isaiah's sin was blotted out, but what did that have to do with the question about what God was going to do about the mess that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was about to get into? If ever there were an image of a mighty God, this was it. Isaiah had come into the presence of a God who could do something. And what did this mighty God do? Well, God took action, all right, God commissioned a mighty prophet: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? (6:8) The text doesn't say and we don't know how much Isaiah sweated his response. Maybe he looked around again and noticed that, not counting God and the Seraphs, there was no one else in the Temple. He was there alone. We don't know if he doubted his capacity to deliver, to do what God asked. We don't know whether like Moses he might have at first equivocated, we only know he answered, "Here am I; send me!" That's how it happened that God took action among the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel 1,250 years ago. And Isaiah the Prophet was active for many years. We humans occupy such a short time in the sweep of Salvation History. We are constantly doubting and questioning. We see such a small piece of the whole of history, but we want resolution, historically instant gratification. We think in television time-the story should have a happy ending in an hour. We can't, of course, know how our little part fits into the whole; we can't know how what we do makes possible a chain of events that may stretch into the eons. But, we can be reassured that God is with us and God will direct us, if we will allow God to be God. Do we trust God to be God in God's place, or do we attempt to take God's place? Where is your trust level?
Let me close with this story: "I Can Sleep When the Wind Blows"
Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer: "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Wake up! Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over I bed and said firmly: "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows." Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot, Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all o f the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tided down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed also to sleep while the wind blew. The moral of the story is - when you are prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand was able to sleep through the storm because he had secured the farm against the storm before it hit. We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. We don't need to understand. Like Joseph and his brothers, like Isaiah, and like Peter, we just need to hold God's hand to have peace in the middle of our storms.
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