SURELY THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE..AND I DID NOT KNOW IT.

Transcription

1 SERMON Saint Margaret s Episcopal Church Pentecost 10 Sunday, July 20, 2008 Fr. Benjamin Speare-Hardy II SURELY THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE..AND I DID NOT KNOW IT. Genesis 28:10-22 Illustration: Willie Mays began his major league baseball career with only one hit in his first 26 at-bats. Though he went on to hit 660 home runs (third on the all-time list), and steal more than 300 bases, his debut was so unimpressive it seemed unlikely he would last more than a few weeks as a big-leaguer, let alone become one of the greatest to play the game. He had a very uncertain future in baseball. The turning point for Mays occurred when his manager, Leo Durocher, found him crying in the dugout after yet another miserable performance at the plate. The coach put his arm around Mays and said, "What s the matter, son?" Mays said, "I can t hit up here. I belong in the minor leagues." Durocher said this to Willie Mays: "As long as I m manager of the Giants, you ll be my centerfielder." You know how the story ends. It wasn t long before Mays began hitting the ball, and he was on his way to becoming a legend of the game. Fortunately there was someone there to encourage him and tell him, "I am behind you, this will work out." We also will face times in our life when we are discouraged and despairing because our future seems so uncertain. Life may be falling apart as a result of our own wrong decisions or through no fault of our own, just as a result of living in a fallen world. Doubt, discouragement, and uncertainty can affect varied aspects of our lives. How many of you have spent some quality time in the "University of Hard Knocks?" None of us have graduated from the classes it offers. 1

2 One can ditch a subject that is unpopular or skip a few classes at school but this is not done in the University of Hard Knocks. Someone has wisely said, "When things get rough, remember: it s the rubbing that brings out the shine." Jacob was a person with many rough spots in his character. Does this apply to anyone you know personally? God was about to begin a rubbing process that ultimately will result in bringing out the shine of His purpose which was to bring great blessing to him, his family, and ultimately the whole world. Chapter 28 opens with Jacob standing in the presence of his father Isaac who is preparing to send his son to choose a bride from among kinfolk in Padan-aram. Jacob is told not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan." With his father s blessing he "went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. It was at this time and place that Jacob had his ladder to heaven dream that ended with the Lord pronouncing His blessing upon him. As evening of the first day falls, Jacob finds himself near the city of Luz. He knows the city gates will close at sundown therefore he is content to spend the night in the open field, "and he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. This could easily be the origination of the well-known phrase, "against a rock and a hard place." We have all experienced that. Jacob s "rock and a hard place" turns out, however, to be the source of a great revelation. It is not unusual for us to find, on our walking by faith" journey several "rock and a hard place" stops. Jacob is leaving home because of his father s wish and with his father s blessing. But you should also know that Jacob is leaving because if he doesn t his twin brother Esau will kill him for cheating him out of the family inheritance. It may not have been his choice to leave home. He may have preferred to stay home with his mother. If he doesn t go he is a dead man. 2

3 He feels uprooted. His comfort zone has definitely been invaded. His future is uncertain. He may have scores of questions with no answers. This could make for a very restless night. It could be a night of tossing and turning even if he could lay his weary body and raw emotions on the softest pillow. It was not to be. Instead, Jacob lays his head on a rock. JACOB LAYS HIS HEAD ON A ROCK! Now let your imagination take wings and see that rock in a way that you have never seen it before. Let that rock be the ROCK OF AGES. Let that ROCK be Jesus. Is there any better place to lay one s head down lay down all the troubling thoughts, mixed emotions, worries and fears? Is there any better place to lay them all down than on the Rock Christ Jesus? How else could one possibly go to sleep with his head on a rock unless it s a special Rock. Here s the metaphor: Jesus is the ROCK. How do I know? I know because Israel s passage from Egypt into Canaan tells me. Paul said, "And [the Israelites in the wilderness] did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). This means that when we find ourselves in a "between a rock and a hard place" experience we can transform that experience from "between a rock," to reclining on a Rock, resting on a Rock. In Ps. 61:1,2 David prayed: "Hear my cry, O God; and listen to my prayer. I call upon you from the ends of the earth with heaviness in my heart; set my upon the rock that is higher than I. " To be led by the Holy Spirit to the "rock that is higher than I" means we come to the place of comfort, rest, peace. Lying down on that Rock is to place all our anxious thoughts and confusion upon Him. It is putting us in a place of receiving a new revelation of a stairway that is open to the heavens. HE TOOK THE STONES OF THAT PLACE. Where is the, "that place" experience? You and I have been there. It is a hard place because it is a stony place. 3

4 There is no green grass, soft and moist, to lie down upon. There is no smell of flowers wafting on the wings of the evening s gentle breezes. The most readily available resource is rocks and more rocks. It is a desolate place. For Jacob, it was a lonely place. It was an isolated place. It was a place of dashed hopes and dreams. A short time earlier he had thought he was getting wealth and power. He gets isolation and separation from his family. He is a man hated by his brother. He is now part of a fractured family. He is on the run. We have been in THAT PLACE. In THAT PLACE you desire comfort but comfort is denied. But there are plenty of rocks. In THAT PLACE you desire companionship but companionship is denied. Still, there are plenty of rocks. In THAT PLACE you could use a friendly voice, an understanding voice, but friendly and understanding do not exist here. Rocks exist here, and plenty of them. What to do? In our story of Jacob, he does something. He took the stone, "and used it for pillow." Not everyone can do this. The opportunity, the potential, is available to everyone. But not everyone can do this because the way one views the stones will determine what use is made of them. Stones can be used as missiles to fire at others in what is well known as "the blame game." Stones can be used to weigh one down to sink beneath the waters of self-pity and failure. However, stones can be used to create a strong foundation to support a new building. Or, stones may become part of the actual building. Stones can never be converted into a downy-soft featherbed. Life is never that easy. But they may become a pillow for a weary mind and body. The freedom to choose how we are going to respond to any situation, any problem or difficulty, is a God-given gift freely available to every one of us. We are free to choose to see stones and stones only. We are free to respond either negatively or positively to our bed of stones. 4

5 Here is one of my favorite stories. It is a short story I ve heard many times called, "The Window." There have been several versions but they all ultimately have the same message. It is a story that tells of two men who were roommates in a hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up for an hour every afternoon to drain fluid from his lungs while the other man had to lie flat on his back. The men would talk for hours. They discussed their families, their jobs, their military service and just about everything else. The man who could sit up looked forward immensely to the hour every afternoon when he could prop himself up and look out the window by his bed. Each afternoon he would describe what he saw to the other gentleman. He talked about how the window overlooked a beautiful park with a lovely lake. He talked about the swans swimming on the lake and the young children playing at the water s edge. He described the beautiful trees and flowers that adorned the lake. The man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. After several days of having the beautiful scenes described to him, however, he began to wonder, "Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything? It just isn t fair." Late one night the gentleman by the window began to choke and cough because of the fluid on his lungs. While the second man watched his roommate struggle and grope for the call button, he never used his own button to call for help. In less than five minutes the man was dead. The next morning the nurses came in and found the lifeless body of the man by the window. Soon the body was moved and as soon as it was appropriate, the other man asked to be moved to the bed by the window. The nurse was happy to comply with his wishes and the man was moved and made comfortable. Slowly and painfully the man propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look. 5

6 Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to look out the window beside the bed. As he did so, he saw nothing but a brick wall. What do you see when you look out through your HardRock Hotel s window? Jacob made a pillow out of his stone and "lay down in that place." Yes, in THAT PLACE. The hard place. The hurting place. We would not naturally choose a moment s stay in the HardRock Hotel let alone an extended period. It is chosen for us perhaps by some foolish mistake or blunder on our part. Or, it may be chosen for us by our wise Heavenly Father to reveal Himself in a new way. Whatever may be the cause, we are there. I have a question and then I want to give a story to illustrate my point. Question: how much fight is in you when you are faced with what can be considered an impossible challenge? Here s a story. This story is about an Evangelist who loved to hunt. The Evangelist went out and bought two top-notch setters. He kept them in his back yard, where he trained them. One morning, an ornery little viciouslooking bulldog came down the alley. He crawled under the fence and before long he and the two setters were at it tooth and nail. At first the Evangelist thought about putting his setters in the basement to avoid a confrontation, but then decided just to let the little bulldog learn a lesson. After a few moments of scuffling with the setters the bulldog decided he d had enough and he squeezed back under the fence and went home to lick his sores. The next morning the same thing happened... same time... same place. And the next morning, and the next. Each morning the bulldog showed up, crawled under the fence, got the stuffing beat out of him and retreated back under the fence and down the alley. After that time the Evangelist had to leave for several weeks to go and conduct a revival. When he returned, he asked his wife about the bulldog and the setters. She replied, "You ll never believe what happened. 6

7 Every day that little bulldog came back in the back yard and fought with the two setters. He never missed a day. It has come to the point now that when our setters simply hear him coming down the alley and see him squeezing under the fence, they immediately start whining and run down into the basement. The bulldog comes into the backyard and struts around as if he owns it." Maybe you feel that you have "crawled under the fence" one time too many. Maybe you feel you don t have enough energy to crawl under one more time. Maybe you feel you have had enough of the stuffing being beat out of you. What can I say? What can I say that will act as a helping hand to lift you back up to your feet and encourage you to know you are not alone? You may, like Jacob, be lying in a hard place feeling alone, uncertain of the future. I want to remind you that when Jacob, "lay down in that place" (Gen. 28:11), the Lord appeared to him. He learned via the vision of a ladder that communication between heaven and earth was possible. But, to me, this is the best part: "And the LORD stood beside him and said, I am the LORD God... know I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Don t miss this! "And Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I did not know it. The Lord has been in the HardRock Hotel AND JACOB DIDN T KNOW IT!" May we "awake" from our complaining. May we "awake" from our whining. May we "awake" from feeling sorry for ourselves. May we awake from making excuses. May we "awake" from blaming others. May we "awake" to a full awareness of God s promise, provision and presence! 7

8 My hope and prayer is that if you find yourself in a hard place where your pillow, like Jacob s, is a rock that you will let your faith speak through the discomfort. Believe that God stands above your circumstances and is master of them. Believe that He is the LORD, God, Almighty and the promise of His I am with you, I will keep you, I will not leave you and I will keep every promise I have made to you will be fully realized. 8