But God

 

It’s a tiny little word and it shows up two times in this gospel. Verse 23 and verse 25. “But.”

 

Every time I think about “but” in the bible I think about Joseph in the Book of Genesis because like the Canaanite woman whose daughter is possessed in the Gospel today. Joseph understood the power of that one little word. Joseph was a devout dreamer, a coat of many different colors. At the tender age of 17 he had a dream that he would be a ruler and his brothers would be subject to him.

 

Joseph was foolish enough to share that dream with his brothers and they hated him for it. They resented him further because he was their father’s Jacob’s favorite. So ,one day out in the field they decided to kill Joseph. But the oldest brother Rebar prevented the murder and they sold him instead to a caravan of camel traders heading towards Asia.

 

Imagine yourself like Joseph your hands tied behind you, transported as a hostage with uncaring strangers to a foreign land. Your status plunge from favorite son and future ruler to a slave worth twenty sheklels, less than a camel’s value. Where is God in this dream? Sounds more like a nightmare.

 

But Joseph knew two of the best words in the bible are “but God.” That pairing occurs at least 42 times in Scripture. Words that mean that God is about to do something. Things may be going one way, regardless of appearances but God is about to intervene. “But God.”

 

David is in the wilderness, Saul is in hot pursuit searching to kill David but God did not give David into his hands. The Israelites are fleeing he Egyptian army not knowing how to escape but God led the people by the desert road through the Red Sea, :”but God.”

 

Let me remind you that God protects, God delivers, God intervenes, God saves. So it’s no surprise that Joseph knowing full well the dream that God has in store for his life when he encounters opposition and he gets a bunch of hostility he gets a bunch, even failure, yep. Two words to lean on. “But God.”

 

Situation worsens, Joseph at the end of his life is able to look at his brothers and say you intended to harm me but God intended me for good to accomplish what is now being done, saving of many lives.

When there appears to be dead ends, look for God’s detour signs. His course corrections. Because what we learn from the Canaanite woman in the gospel and from Joseph in Genesis is that dead ends may turn out to be holy moments. If the dream in your life is truly God’s dream, if he has given the destination, He will make the necessary course corrections. There are no dead ends, nothing is impossible with God.

 

Down in Egypt, God helps with the first detour, Joseph gets sold to a good man named Podermer, put him in charge of management over the household. Joseph manages the household and discerns God’s dreams astounds Podemer. But Podemer’s wife sexually harasses, sexually assaults Joseph and when he wouldn’t agree to an affair, she falsely accuses him of assault. So, he goes to jail. Another dead end. But in jail God found another good detour. The jailor puts him in charge of the prison and he interprets dreams for two different inmates who work in the household. One of them is released and returns to the Pharoah as cupbearer and he promises to remember Joseph and help him but he forgot. Dead end.

 

Two years later Pharoah has a dream and desperately needs somebody to interpret and the cupbearer says “Aha,” I remember this guy in prison named Joseph. He was filled with God’s wisdom, he interpreted dreams. He also advises Pharoah on polices for government and became the second in command. There was a dead end and God turns it into a holy moment. What seemed unholy has become holy. Joseph learned to trust God.

 

Trust God…

 

Joseph had dreams, his brothers sold him into slavery but God was with him. He was accused by Padermer’s wife and put in jail, but God was with him.. He was forgotten by the cupbearer but God was with him. It took 23 years for the dream to become a reality. A lot of twists and turns. False accusations. But Joseph had patience and persistence to wait and trust God.

 

So I invite you today as you hear about our parish being threaten to close and accused of false accusations to think about Joseph and think about the gospel, learn those two words, “but God.”

 

They work in every situation when you’re alone, when you’re wandering, when you’re struggling with the decision to go to trial, when you’re a committee member and tired of trying to save this parish, when you accused, when you’re teetering and ready to give up the fight, “but God.”

 

Joseph trusts God, despite prison, poverty, suffering. All the members of your parish committee and all of you who are parishioners need to “trust God” despite harassment, bullying and deception these past six months of detour.

 

Joseph despite 23 years of detour of suffering gets better, not bitter. And all of us on Divine Mercy’s committee and all of you in these pews are better not bitter.

 

God has dreamed your life and it will require your cooperation. As your pastor and your parish committee members we humbly ask your support to make a decision to move forward in our legal proceedings and give us your permission and support to go to trial to return this building to Divine Mercy.

 

There are challenges ahead and everyone will not get excited about God’s journey. You will get to a point what appears to be dead ends, setbacks, disappointments but in those moments turn to God. I mean really where else will you go. DON’T GIVE UP!

 

He will help you turn what would make you bitter, into something that will make you better. Because truly, there are not more beautiful words then, “BUT GOD.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God Will Catch Us

 

Yesterday, I was called to provide grief support to teachers at a daycare center. Last Thursday, a mom while driving to pick up her two-year old daughter was killed in an auto accident.

 

As I listened through their tears, one shared that when she heard about the tragedy, all she could think of was who was going to feed this child, where was she going to live. This mom was a single parent with no family. 

 

Go ahead and say it aloud, "How can your God allow this?” This child will never know the love of her mother. Her teachers are  devastated and will probably never get over their sorrow. “What meaning can this tragedy have except to prove that life itself is ultimately meaningless?"

Both teachers shared that they cried in their classroom throughout the day while taking care of their little ones. As I listened, I could only drank in their sorrow that filled the room and let the storm within their hearts run its course. 

 

To his credit, feeling himself sinking into the waves, Peter stretched out his hand to the Lord saying, "Lord, save me." And of course, Jesus saved him. Even in his failure Peter teaches us the invaluable lesson of always reaching out to the Lord when we're in trouble or when we encounter life with so much sorrow.

 

Many people find it difficult to believe in a loving God because of the suffering of the innocent. As a hospital chaplain for a decade in the pediatric unit and serving now as a trauma specialist, I am no stranger to doctors, teachers, nurses and parents brokenhearted, frustrated and angry because they could do nothing to save or even alleviate the pain of a child.

 

In the moment of sorrow, I have no wish to change a person’s feelings. “I feel the same way." I am a human being and have the same emotions as anyone else when faced with agony. Nevertheless, although my feelings are the same, my conclusions are quite different from others. What angers us is not God's indifference but our own powerlessness and the pain it causes us. If we can blame it on God or use their suffering to disprove the existence of God, we can relieve ourselves of a great deal of responsibility but we will not solve the mystery or relieve the suffering of these teachers.

Peter wants to walk on water, and Jesus says to Peter, “Come.” When Peter’s initial success morphs into failure, Jesus is there to catch him. Peter, the former fisherman, gets caught in the net of Christ’s love, safety, and assurance. Maybe the response to that failure was an even more important demonstration than the ability of someone to walk on water. No one, in fact, actually needs to walk on water. Many of us desperately need to know that God will catch us when we can’t.

Lord I pray for all my Sonshine parents whose child has died of disease, accidents or unknown cause. We need to know that God will catch us when we can’t understand the meaning of tragedy in our lives. Peter represents all of us as disciples. God does not work by way of miracles in our lives. He doesn't want us walking on water. He simply assured us that he would be with us always: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them....and behold I am with you always, till the end of the world" (Mt. 28:20). That Jesus is with us always should be enough for us.

 

 

Why Does God Let Us Fail

 

What would you think is Jesus’ favorite word? Most might say love and you know that’s fair enough since Jesus talked about love. “Love one another as I have loved you” that was essentially Jesus’ parting sermon to the disciples.

 

Now some might say fear. How many times does Jesus say “do not be afraid.” He gets to turn fear into courage so perhaps more than any other phrase in all of scripture Jesus says, “do not be afraid.”

 

Or, you might go in a different direction and you might say forgiveness. That word may very well define Jesus’s mission on earth. He suffered and died for the forgiveness of sins, my sins, your sins, everyone’s sins. Everybody needs to forgive somebody.

 

I think Jesus has another favorite word. I think Jesus’s favorite word is “rise.” Rise is the word Jesus uses every time he describes how he is going to establish his kingdom and unlock the Gates of Heaven. He’s going to suffer, he’s going to die, but this is the most important claim in all of human history. He said he was going to rise, he would literally rise from the dead so that he could do the same for you and me. He would do this at the moment of our death. Instead of us being alone, we’re going to hear a simple word of life, whispered into the depths of our souls, “rise.”

Rise to life again.

 

The story of the Transfiguration suggests that rising is not just a word applied to life after death. It actually applies to the here and now so we learn the disciples are faced down in the dirt, gripped with fear because they hear the voice of God the Father. They hear him say this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him and they’re unable to comprehend what’s happening.

 

They’re unable to comprehend that Moses and Elijah are there with them and they actually heard the voice of God and they’re down on the ground, prostrate facing the dirt trembling with fear unable to figure out what to do and what does Jesus do?

 

He comes over to them, he comforts them with a touch and he says “rise.”

To rise is to go from who we are to who we could be. Whether we are  gripped by fear or lost in the darkness of an addiction, a physical sickness, being discouraged, feeling broken. Whatever it is to go from that to a future of goodness, beyond comprehension, a future of peace and vitality and life and flourishing.

 

I mean there’s no story more attractive to the human spirit than the story of someone rising. Being the underdog. Our greatest glorious moment as human beings is not failing but in the rising up every time we fail.

 

Now think about this, God doesn’t prevent us from failing or falling. He doesn’t prevent us from doing that, He lets it happen. He does so for many reasons most of which are too mysterious for us to ever know but one of the reasons we do know is this. Nothing transforms the soul into something beautiful quite like rising quite like getting up when everyone thought you were destined to stay on the ground forever.

 

God parents us in this way. He lets us fall even if we have to fall over and over and over again because we need to rise. We need to rise for a particular reason so if there are things weighing you down in life, if there are things that may make you doubt the hope that you carry within you. If  you’re weighed down by the sense of your own inadequacy, you’re weighed down by the past opportunities you’ve missed in life, the burdens and cruelties of life. If you are weighed down by the  faces of those who have wronged you and set you back permanently in life. If you’re on the ground because your dreams are lying dormant somewhere in a forgotten corner of your heart. If Iife every day feels like an overwhelming blur of a burden, if there’s something you need to but don’t want to do because it’s hard or painful or you don’t think you can do it. If you’re growing restless or if you’re stuck at a rut in your life, if you’re just limping through your days just trying to get by, if life has placed an unfathomably large burden upon your shoulders and you have no idea how you’re suppose to carry it or if the reality of who you are in relation to who you thought you could be has shattered your world. If you move through your day dazed, disoriented or uncertain of what to do next. Hear this word, rise.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they hear the word of Jesus, hear the word that breathes life and strength into our souls. Hear the word of Jesus saying to you, “rise.”  Rise. Believing who you could be is not a forgotten dream but a god-given destiny.