AtomPeace in Economic Storms
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46
We are on quite a ride are we not…the last few weeks, and it’s far from over…
• with Headline after Headline bombarding us with news that seeks to raise blood pressures and increase our anxiety levels…(show headlines…with depression era picture also)
• with Bailout news topping the headlines throughout the week…
• with vice-presidential debates taking place…(did she or he win???)…
• with each presidential candidate blaming the other for the woes of our economic problems and with each presidential candidate claiming they are the ones with the right answer…
It’s been quite a ride this week…even more-so with our news media and talk radio folks seeking to stir us up…sell copy…and promote fear and anxiety…
• On Monday, driving home from making hospital calls in Fargo, every radio hosts I heard was taking phone calls from people calling in to talk about their fears and anxieties…
• I think it was Wednesday morning, when, as the Good Morning America reporter was interviewing two members of the House of Representatives…and the interviewers voice was rising and even trembling abit when he was talking about the One point whatever trillion dollars lost in the stock market that day….when one of the members of the House of Representatives told him, to paraphrase… “You sound a bit anxious and I don’t think that’s what we need right now. We’re working on getting a good bill passed…and we don’t need this type of anxiousness from you.” I applauded in my living room…
It’s been quite the ride and quite the week….and I believe is far from over!!!
BUT…this week, as I watched my retirement funds sink like a rock, I also was looking to the Good News of Jesus in the Scriptures, and found myself singing a little song from the Old Testament as a reminder of who we are….and who the real God is… a song to sing as we journey our way through times that could, if we let them, fill us with anxiousness and fear and worry. Here’s the song…sung by the people of God after the crossing of the Red Sea…
Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses….
but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God…
And then I started to play with the events of our day…but didn’t get very far….
Some trust in Wall Street bailouts and government funds….
but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God!!!
Let’s pray before I go too far: Gracious God, we live in a turbulent world…one that can bring us uncertainty, anxiety, and much unknown. Today, give to us that gift of your spirit…your gift of the peace that passes understanding as we seek to trust in you, the ultimate source of life and security. In your name we pray. Amen.
I enjoy reading Leonard Sweet, theologian, author, and preacher. This week he wrote:
I know of someone who would have understood the stock market these past few weeks.
I don’t mean The Great American Taxpayer Robbery by the Boardroom Bandits. No one
I know can understand that 700 billion Main Street bailout of Wall Street. Is there any other word than “hypocrisy” when fat-cats want to privatize profits but socialize losses?
I do mean the dizzying up/down of stocks.
The person who would have understood this is the Apostle Paul. For Paul pioneered a new form of accounting: everything that had traditionally been counted as “gain” was suddenly turned upside down and revealed to be a “loss.”
All those brokerage firms and banking giants that were doing so “well” at financing mortgages were suddenly drowning in red ink.
In this award-winning children’s classic the Phantom Tollbooth, there is the kingdom of the Mathmagician where the residents only eat when they are full, dining on “subtraction stew.” Visitors Milo, Tock, and the Humbug are normally hungry and unsuspecting when they sit down to their meal of subtraction stew with their new friends. As they consume bowl after bowl after bowl after bowl they become more and more ravenous. After he scarfs down twenty bowls of “subtraction stew,” the Humbug grabs his stomach as screeches his realization, “I’m starving!”
This was the same discovery Paul made on the Damascus road. Here was a man with a rich life of privilege, pedigree, scholarship, zeal, influence, power, and Torah-affirmed righteousness. But one day on a Damascus Road, Paul suddenly found himself at zero. Even less than zero! A flash of light, a heavenly voice, and all accounts were transferred from one side of Paul’s life-ledger to the other.
All that Paul had been born into; all that Paul had achieved through study and hard work; all the righteousness that Paul had tallied up by doing the right things: all were but gall to Paul (subtraction stew). The faith of Christ, and Paul’s new-found gift of faith in Christ, had brought a blessing into Paul’s life that turned his world upside down.
If Paul was a singer, his song might go something like this: “Some trust in riches and stock markets and Wall Street and presidential candidates and pedigrees and privilege and power and Wall Street bailouts and 401k’s….to bring about security and peace.”
But We…God’s people…we will trust in the name of the Lord our God…the only one who can deliver all that he has promised…and then some!!
People of God, this is what our Lesson today is all about. It’s about a relationship…it’s about pressing towards the goal of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death…It’s about…think of it in this way…
An amusing story appeared recently in the magazine, Today’s Christian Woman. A woman took her four-year-old granddaughter, Amanda, to the doctor’s office with a fever. The doctor looked in her ears and said, “Who’s in there? Donald Duck?” She said, “No.” He looked in her nose and said, “Who’s in there? Mickey Mouse?” Again she said, “No.” He put his stethoscope on her heart and said, “Who’s in there? Barney?” Amanda replied, “No, Jesus is in my heart. Barney is on my underwear.”
In the words of this child, it doesn’t matters who’s on your underwear when Jesus is in your heart. And when Jesus is in your heart, Jesus gives you a wardrobe to wear that includes faith, hope, love, forgiveness, tolerance and the peace that passes understanding: no matter what the headlines of the day read!!
Further…We also know from what Jesus taught is there is room in our hearts for only ONE GOD…and there is only ONE GOD who can deliver what He has promised. Yet, so many have that tendency to reject this God and turn to others…But, what does Jesus say in the Gospel….
The building block that was rejected…has become the cornerstone…to Life and peace and so much more!!!
In our day and age, It would be so easy for a church…and for the people of God…when we come up against the anxieties and fears of our culture to hunker down…and say, let’s ride out this storm…and let our lives become filled with the anxieties and worries of our Day…
It would be so easy to do this…But…this is not our call…because we would then be listening to the wrong voices and the wrong places of guidance.
Our Call?? Listen again to Philippians…
To count whatever gains we have a loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord!! To Press on to the goal of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.
Today’s lesson is about relationships…about our relationship with the Living Lord Jesus, the giver of real peace, calm, non-anxiousness in the midst of all things!! Yes, there is the part about living lives prepared…this is what the Good $ense Ministry is all about…but this is for another time!
In terms of the peace that comes in relationship with Jesus….
Today’s worship is about reminding us that Jesus is here again today…offering to each the gift of His body and blood…the gift of a meal that is not “subtraction stew”, but is life giving and life filling…offering to each his gift of that peace that indeed passes understanding…that gift of a new song to sing…
However…what about tomorrow…what about when we go from this place…and look at the headlines of the papers and talk-show hosts; and feel the anxiety levels and the blood pressures go up?
The truth of the matter is, The Living Lord Jesus is in our tomorrows also, ready and willing to fill us with that same peace…the peace of his presence!!
When Martin Luther was struggling with all the anxieties and worries and concerns of his day and time, his spiritual mentor took him aside and told him,
“Martin…three things I advise you. Eat good food, get more sleep, and learn more about God.”
And, I believe the same holds true today…for all of God’s people…especially that part about learning more about God!! Spiritual growth in not magical…it happens within the relationship developed when we spend time with Jesus…
Thus, this week, when those worrisome headlines appear…and you feel the blood pressure start to rise…what can you do??
• Pick up your Bible…and read to build that relationship with Jesus.
• Pick up a devotional book before bedtime and read together with the members of your family some of the GOOD NEWS that we need to hear.
• Bow your heads in prayer in addition to your mealtime prayers…and seek the presence of the Living God who indeed brings peace and calm in the midst of troubled lives.
And in doing so, learn to sing that new song….and is really an old, old song made new with new verses each and every day…
• Some trust in chariots and some in horses…but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God: as sung by God’s people when set free from slavery in Egypt…
• Some trust in 401k’s and some in Wall Street bailouts….but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God…the God who has been faithful in the past and promises to be faithful to his people forever!!
And now, may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN. Thanks be to God…AMEN and AMEN!!!
Statement of Faith….
The hymn of the Day…Hymn for Prayer reminds us that there is only ONE place that delivers what it promises…the Wondrous Cross of Jesus Christ…we sing together!!
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