Calvary United Methodist Church June 17, 2018 WHERE DO YOU SEE GOD? Rev. R. Jeffrey Fisher Children s Message: 1 Thessalonians 2:9 We invite our children to come forth for the Children s message. Come on up. Welcome. Is school finished? (Yes!) But the learning continues. All kinds of neat things we can learn this summer. Great to have you all here this morning. (To be continued.) That s right, it s to be continued all the days of our life. Even we who are much older continue to learn and it s a great thing to be able to learn new things. How many of you like to play? Anybody out there like to play? Our toys are just a little bit more expensive, usually, right? Sometimes we like to go to the beach or play with balls or play in the grass with their neighbors and friends; play in the snow in the wintertime; play in the pools; video games. There are all kinds of playing we do and most of us do that all the days of our life. It just changes in some of the things, but we like to play. But do you play all the time? What do you do when you are not playing? (I work hard.) You work hard. (I watch TV.) And what do you do to work hard? (Child speaks.) What kind of work do you all do? (School.) Schoolwork? What do you do? You can get money. Working is good if you can get money. We do chores. (But you can watch TV too.) You watch TV? (You can draw pictures.) Ah, so it s your work? You clean up your messes. Well, that s kind of a given, isn t it? We clean and we help maybe sometimes with the dishes or cooking or baking and garbage and yardwork and why do you suppose we do that instead of just play all the time? (Because if you work hard then eventually time you have time to play after.) You re so smart. If you work hard, you ll have time to play. Right? And the whole thing is if we only play you have to have money for things like, oh, houses, cars, and food and clothing. So our whole life is a mix of work and play and it s good that it s a mix but when we work together sometimes we work alone and that s okay, but sometimes it s really fun when you are working with someone, it makes the work, I think, a lot of times go faster. I want to read about Paul who wrote these letter to Thessalonica to remind us about when we work together and especially if we are work-
ing for God, and everything you do is ultimately for God. We are a part of God s family. Even when you are working cleaning your room, it s a glory to God because it is a clean room and God s happy to see us have our life together. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil, our work and our hardships; We worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You see, we work because if I don t work and you have to feed me and give me my house and give me my clothing, give me everything, you are working hard and I m not working. That doesn t always make everyone happy, does it? So, these gentlemen that were going around in those days felt that God wanted them to go to speak to other people to tell them how much they were loved. And it s important, even when you are at your home and the work you do and in the play you do that we remember to tell other people that God loves them and hopefully we do too. It s important because they went from house to house and they depended on the goodness of other people, but they also did their own fair share. It s important to do our share of the work, not only around our home, in our communities and in our nations wherever we are to make life better. And sometimes we forget the many things we have to do. It s easy sometimes to get caught up in the fun and play of recess or having our meals that we forget that there are things to work and there are places that we can work at every aspect of our life. I know this is sad picture of someone going off to start school. That s months away. But have you ever been in that situation where you had to go to a new school and you didn t know anyone? Anyone? Anyone out there go to a place like that, if not at school? How comfortable do you feel when you go to a new place? It s kind of frightening sometimes, a little afraid? Me too. And yet, guess what? You all went to new school and you survived, didn t you? And you met new friends and you ve learned lots of good things and so sometimes we can learn to make the best of bad situations and some of the ways that makes them best is if we have a friend. I love it when I have a friend, someone that is going that journey with me to hold hands as we start the school year or just to sit next to me in class or to
help me with school projects or to help around my home wherever it is. Sometimes working with other people can be a fun thing. Sometimes we get into other places where we are afraid. We might be afraid of going to meet new people. We might be sick. We ve all been sick and sometimes we even get afraid to even see the people who are going to make us better because it s unknown to us so we really don t like things we don t know about. But most people that you will meet in life are here to help you. I believe that with my whole heart. There are a few bad weeds out there but most people want to care, they want your life to be better, they want to improve it and so when we go it s kind of a good feeling to know that we can help others. One of the things that we do as a community of faith and as individuals, as young people and even as older people, we help one another. So, when we say please help like this week is Vacation Bible School, I hope you ll all be here, we help one another because it s a better experience when we help. Sometimes we help at our neighbors because when we come together we how many of you have ever raked leaves in the fall? If you have a huge yard the size of this church, would you like to do it all by yourself? It would be a little easier if there s like all of us raking, right? It makes the work so much lighter. Same it is in all of our life, like here at the church, in our communities and as you grow up when we share responsibilities, working is fun, it s good and accomplishes things and someone here said when we get our work done then we can (Play.) Riley said we can play. That s all good stuff. And part of the work you have all the days of our life is when you see someone else that needs something, like if you ve ever had to learn to ride bike, learn to go swimming, learned to do something in Phys. Ed., bouncing balls or whatever, you take someone who knows how and they teach the rest of us. That is a great helping hand, to be able to help other people.
Help someone learn how to read. Help someone be successful. Help around the house. The many things we do, you know, when we help moms and dads, guess what? Then they have more play time too. Isn t that a good thing? Because they work all day like you do, come home and if they are working by themselves, that s not so fun. So when we work together, we do great things. Here at the church there are plenty of things you can do and you as well. You can work with ushers; you can work as an acolyte; you can help collect the funds. You can sing in the choirs; We can greet out at the front door: Welcome to the family of Calvary. And you can even take up the offering and do things like that. When we work together it s incredible how fun it is, how much more free time other people have and you know what? I usually feel good when I help other people.
And so even some of the things we do is to visit people who don t have a lot of family around because we make them feel very happy. You and I have a big chore all the days of our life. We have been told many time we re a gift, we are God s gift to the world. Your gifts, your talents, your skills, the love you share can make the world a better place. And so it is we need to continue to change to make the world a better place and I believe as we do that, we re going to see that you re feeling better about everything we do because we re a gift to other people. So at this time I want to share with you a gift. Most of you have probably seen a banana. How many of you ever ate a banana? Everybody? Did you ever see the trees they grow on? They have great big leaves and when I traveled to Africa some months ago, I found a place where they cut those leaves in strips and they weave them and they made little purses that you can store all kinds of stuff in them and you can stand up here and take one and give thanks to God that you have a chance to make the world a better place. Just one please, make sure everybody gets one. Ok. Thank you. Everyone get one? Thank you for coming up today. Message: Joshua 3:7-16 (VIDEO) You have the power. Where do I see God? I see God all around me, but I see God in you. You and I have the power to be healers, to offer forgiveness, to offer grace, to offer mercy, to teach, to bind up wounds and so much more, if we choose. You have the power. It s in your hands. We have the choice to be a positive influence in our world or to be that negative stirring influence that doesn t help any of us. God want us to choose to be lovers, to be loving of all that we find around us, to accept those around us and to open our eyes. I find myself so busy somedays and you do as well, that it s like we have blindfolds on. We drive to work, we work, we go home, we are busy at whatever your office is at. We miss the hurts, the pains, the suffering among us because we are still focused on the work and getting through a day and we don t take time, as we said to the children, when you work all the time and you don t play it makes a dull boy, is
what I heard as a kid. Some of us work so much that we don t take time for play and especially we don t take time for God and to be the instruments of God s peace that God wants us to be. There is a story in Joshua that I want to share. The people of God had just spent forty years in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses. They were to go to the Promised Land but Moses didn t quite have the faith and so God told him he wouldn t quite make it. He was sending a new leader named Joshua and Joshua was given authority by Almighty God. Authority is a great thing and guess what? When Jesus left he said: I give you and you and you and you authority to go forth in my name to make a difference; to bind up the wounds of the world. You and I have the authority in God s name to step out in faith and do what needs to be done. Here these words: and the Lord said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: when you reach the edge of the Jordan s waters, go and stand in the river. Joshua said Israelites: Come here and listen to the worlds of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one of each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord the Lord of all the earth
Foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap. So when people broke camp to cross the Jordan, The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage during the harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. I don t know about you, but that s a pretty frightful thought. You are carrying this Ark of the Covenant, it s noting as the presence of God and I want you to step into the unknown, because if you step there, I promise I will take care of you and I will resolve these issues. Most of us like to step into the known: going to the first day of school, going to an unknown doctor, going to someone to face our trials is frightening. I grew up along the Juniata River and I remember here as well as in another photo you will see in a moment here in this lake, it s Greenwood Furnace built by the CCC camps after World War II I believe it was. You would swim in this dark water and when a crab or a little fish touched your leg, you d think the Loch Ness Monster was down there ready to grab you. It s not quite the same as a little swimming pool where you can see what s in there for you. But when you are in this water it takes great faith. And the faith is not only in that, but the faith was always for me, I would keep my eye on the bank, because not lifeguards in those days, mommies and daddies were there.
And if you are in trouble, call on a mom or dad, mostly they are going to be there for you. And so when you are gasping, coming up out of the water, they are going to see your time of need and they are going to come and rescue you. This is our God, time and time and time again throughout history He says: You call on me, I ll be there, even before you call my name I am with you in the storms, in the deserts, in the mountains, in the valleys, I, your God, am with you and will be with you. So here we stand before the Jordan River in flood stage, and they are standing there with the Ark, and the people are probably petrified, thinking: you want me to go where? You want me to go into that water, into an unknown and Joshua had to say to them: Yes. And so they get to the water and nothing happened and they get close to the water and nothing happened and it reminds them: it s not going to happen until you trust. Oh, that we have the trust of a little child. I remember years growing up around the farm, we had hay mows and we d all play up there and sometimes you are half way up and scream and Dad would say, Jump! Guess what I did? You are a kid. You trust, because that s what children do: they trust us until we teach that we are not quite trustworthy. The men stood on the water and the rest was history, as the people crossed on dry ground. See, God tells us these things in scriptures to remind us that we will be faithful because God is faithful.
He tells us, I remember the old stories, put a string around your finger to remember your milk, eggs or whatever it is. We should have one around us every day: remember, God is with you. The Holy Spirit to comfort us says: I am always by your side. The Master, our God, is but a cry away or the whisper of your voice, Lord, I am frightened. Lord, I need you. Lord, I am in a difficult place right now. And the reason we are reminded? So we will know that: I am the Lord your God. I am the One. Don t panic, I am with you. There s no need for fear. I m your God. I ll give you strength. I ll help you. I ll hold you steady, I ll keep a firm grip on you. And we need to mostly know this when we are in trials. When we have been lost, some of you have probably been lost in a car before. We didn t always have these travel systems in our cars, right? Sometime you didn t even have your map along, you are on some road and you just don t know exactly where you are. But I ve been lost in a lot of places other than road and the woods. I ve been lost in decisions in life. Have you been lost there? I don t know what to do in this relationship. Should I get married or not? Should I date or not? Should I hang out with these friends or not? Should I go into these places? Should I choose this career or that career? There have been so many paths I ve gone down through years and I ve had to pray out to God saying: Lord, I m lost. I don t know what it is that you want of me and we pray that God will give us some sign that we can step into the unknown and when we do, sometimes even if it is not exactly where we need to be, God will bring us back where we need to be. But we need to be in conversation. Never walk alone. I love that picture of the little boy or girl with the book bag going to school and it looks so much nicer when someone is walking with them. Walking alone can have its moments of fun, we all like a little peace once in a while. But when I m in the storms of my life, I want someone to call. Sometimes I call an old friend. Sometimes I meet a new stranger, because if there is no one else around, guess what? They can become a friend very quickly. Sharing the jour-
ney when we are on a journey that s frightening is a helpful thing. To find someone to walk that lonely difficult road with us, when you are in the hospital facing some unknown report, the nurses and the doctors and the technicians and even those who keep the place clean can be mighty great friends as they are reassuring you that somehow you are going to get through it. I found in my life that no only God is present to guide me, God is also the one who will provide what I need when I need it. I shared the story at the first service the very first mission trip I led to Africa I was only 24. It s been a while ago. And I had an older woman with me, older than me, actually. She was about 74 and the first day there she had a heart attack. Now where I go in Sierra Leone, the medical hospitals in those days were sort of like your family cabinet in your house: a couple of band aids, a couple of things like that. By God s grace a woman from Williamsport went with me on that team. She had been with me on other missions in America. The day she left her doctor s office in Williamsport, the doctor came to her car, she had already left, and said, Why don t you take these Nitro patches with you. Now, that wasn t by chance. God provided. We get her in on the way to take her from the bush and we were way out in the bush, into the city. We had a flat tire. She is laying in the back of an old wagon. I get her into the city, we get that fixed and there are no doctors. The hospitals there, they are not a whole lot better than that today. Most of the things we have you would not survive. There happened to be a doctor from England visiting his mother and father in Freetown. Guess what kind of a doctor he was? Thoracic medicine doctor. He happened to have stuff with him. You see, to me, you can say, Well, that s good chance, good luck. It s not good luck. That s God. And you can say, Well, that doesn t always happen. No, it doesn t, but I m going to give God the glory and thanks for that and if it didn t happen I would have still been giving God the glory and thanks because God would have provided another way, even if it was getting her body home. God provides a way and it s not always the happy endings we want. Know that, please. I think that is a false ministry that prays be with God everything is fine. No, be with God, everything is fine, but it is not always the fine that we want. God will work with us to get through whatever it is. We need to learn to walk in God s will, to do what is pleasing to God and we can only do that if we pray to God, if we read God s word, we seek God that we can ask God What is it that you will have of my life? Where is it that you will take me? What is it you would like me to do with all the days of my life?
We can be in the desert places and when we walk in God s will, we will go to the place of refreshment. We will be on a path that leads us to renewal time and time and time again and walking hand in hand with God, walking hand in hand with God is like walking with our parents. Our parents have the responsibility to keep us safe. They have the responsibility to lead us in a path of righteousness, to educate us and to put us on a path that someday we can be free again. God wants to do that. There are times as a child and probably more times as an adult that I put on blinders, I don t want to see where I am headed. Did you ever do that? Oh, Lord, I don t want to make this decision. Signing a mortgage statement for the first time was one of the biggest things. I just wanted to turn my eye and say, I really don t want to sign this for all this money. I remember the first time I bought a car and they were a lot cheaper in those days. There are a lot of those decisions in relationships and working places you realize that this decision to work in this place is going to have some effect on me for some time. When you buy a house and you have a thirty year mortgage, it is going to have an effect on you for some time. And we need to be able to step in faith that there is time, using God s judgement, to simply trust that you are right where God wants you. And when you decide and figure out that we aren t always in the right place, the words that we use around here are called grace and mercy. I love how we purify ourselves. In the words of the scriptures we are reminded of the baptism, the water that cleanses us. We come up out of the water, we are born anew. We become a new person. Just like water takes off the dirt, the forgiveness we hear these words: In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Now, hopefully when we have said that, we now say: Lord, help me from being that old man. Help me from being the negative, help me from being the judgmental. Help me from condemning others. Let me be loving, let me be pure, let me be clean, let me be the man or the woman or the child of God you want me to be today. And tomorrow when I stumble again, God s going to hear me say again: Lord, would you clean me up again. And God will say: Yeah, I sure will. You come back to me day after day after day because your heart s desire is to walk for God.
God gives us instructions in His Word and he says sometimes the only thing you need to do is to step out in faith. Put your foot in the water, put your foot where it needs to be. I will be with you as I was with those people long ago when they took that Word. There are many rivers we cross throughout our lifetime. It s hard for me to remember the ones that these little folks did a while ago, but I remember them. I remember the frightening days of I went to a little elementary school and then to a different school from 4 th through 6 th grade and then to my high school was huge, 7 th through 12 th grade, 360 kids. I had 42 in my class. Pretty small. But we fear where we are going to go for education. What would it be like to be in some sort of a committed relationship? What will it be like if we bring children into our life? We will have losses of jobs and friends and family and some of the dreams that we give up a lot as we go through the years. Sometimes we have health issues and we have to readjust then and say: God, what is it that you want in the situation that I m in now or were. Ultimately some of us have fears of retirement and what we will do with ourselves. And ultimately the death, not only in ours but the people we love. And God says to all of us: generations before you have made it and stood strong and the saints of heaven pray for us. We will be fine even in our losses. God is with us. And I can attest in my life, I m like you. I have had a lot of painful losses and I m still standing. The hurts and deep, the heart has all kinds of crumbles on it, I m sure because it hurts when you love and care and you get hurt. But God says: I m with you.
This look that this woman has on graduation is the look that I still have some days. It s like: Wow, Lord, what do you really want from me. Do you ever have that dumbfounded look? You see, my last years of high school, I ve shared before, I was down in the ditch. My dad had equipment and we worked for other companies. And we built houses and I thought that was where God wanted me until I went and did other kind of work. We did both that and we framed houses and I just absolutely love framing houses. And then my pastor took me on a trip to do this which is what we do all the time here. We are always leading these short mission trips to change people s lives. And I felt this nudging from God that God didn t want me to be in the ditch and building houses. God wanted me to be in ministry. So, I, unprepared from high school, went off to this little school called Penn State. Now remember, I was in a class of 42. Because I wasn t college prep I wanted to go to Shippensburg first and Messiah College and I couldn t get accepted in those places because my grades weren t the way they ought to have been. I didn t have college prep classes. Penn State took me on probation at Altoona and then the last two years at the main campus. If there was ever a lost person, take a man from a class of 42 and go to a general class at Penn State with 800. I thought the world was ending. It was the first time I met anyone of color; it s the first time I met a Catholic or a person of Jewish faith or Buddhism or Muslim. It s the first time I saw people who were different than me because when you lived in a little farming village in the middle of Pennsylvania there aren t a lot of different folk there. But my folks always taught me to love everybody, so that went okay. It was just that it was different.
And I saw storm after storm after storm in subjects. Anthropology? All these sciences. Mathematics. I wasn t good at any of that stuff. How was I going to get through this to become a pastor? And God somehow made a way when it seemed like there was no way. I battled discouragement for seven years, four years at Penn State and three years for my first masters and in all of that my parents, my people at the church, my friends prayed, steadied, supported and encouraged. You see, God makes a way when you think there is no way. God will do it if you allow God into your life. It s like God was right beside me, stepping out into that wilderness and so as the chrysalis I was formed, I was shaped until one day I could fly free. Today in our world, people need an ark, something that symbolizes God s presence and you are it. Ever play that game? Today you are it. It s on our shoulders to be those who deliver God s message, to be the presence of God, to be loving and supporting and encouraging and to walking along the road and to being a guide and to help teach and to mentor the young and the old and alike that we know we are never alone, that God is with us. And we meet them, stand by them and if necessary we even need to get a little muddy. We need to be God for other people. We need to be standing there that we can introduce them to God that they will have that personal relationship, but also to let them know we will be by their side. Sometimes I love these things: Oh, you ve never done this before. Well, you re in for a treat. You been down that road before? Age 50, start going to the doctor, you are going to have a few of those tests you wish you d never had before, right? It s not all bad. Sometimes new is exciting, right? You try new things, you grow, you experiment.
And in all of those things, we need to give up the fears that we had to lead to the other side. If you don t take care of the fear, you will never step out and miss so much. I know a lot of my family won t fly anymore and I am thinking: oh, they are missing so many opportunities to see places you just can t drive to. We all have fears, though, I m not picking on them. I m just saying when we allow our fears to control our lives, we feel something different about our body, but we are afraid to go to the doctor to find out what it is, it can control your life real quick. It can take your life if you don t address the problems that are there. We all have problems. God s bigger. God s bigger than all the problems we have and we need to step out and to get to the new places. And when we step with God it might be a little dark and gloomy path for a while. But God says: I will lead you through the hills. I will be your shepherd. I will be the One. But you need to pray for Me, with Me and know that God is present with us. And there will be a new beginning. Every failure in my life has been met with a new beginning in some other area, whether it be in relationships, whether it be in disappointments through career choices or schooling or friends whatever. God provides new beginnings all the time. Moses didn t believe and didn t see the Promised Land.
Instead God called out Joshua. God calls us today. He says there will be new paths and he points us to God to tell to all of us there are provisions, certainly God will provide. Because He has given us the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who says to you: I want to lead you in the paths of righteousness into new life. So, the question is: Where do you want to see God? I open my eyes every day and when I can slow down just enough, I will see God everywhere. I see God in the volunteers, I look around here, that come in here week after week, just freely give of themselves, to make this church what it ought to be for the Kingdom of God. I see those who share their gifts of music. I see the children who are excited about Vacation Bible School and those who will come and help them. There are endless gifts that we have that bring the Kingdom to its fullness. I don t know where you see God, but I invite you to look every moment, to breathe deeply, slow down your pace and to find God s presence and healing power that we might be known as the people who are healing others. We live in a broken culture right now and we need positive people, we need to be those who can zip up the negative and turn it off and be loving and caring and redeeming of all that we can for Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for trusting us with your Word, with the Good News. Thank you for empowering us. Thank you for equipping us. Thank you now for sending us out that we might be powerful messengers to bring your love, your grace, your mercy for forgiveness to all people. In Jesus Name. Amen. The ushers will wait upon us at this time to receive our gifts unto the Lord.
Benediction: We have been given the Ark of God, the Word of God, the Power of God, the Authority of God to go into our world to bring redemption every day, every hour, we ve got it to give His love and mercy and grace to all. We simply need to take this step forward to do it. Let us go with the love of God, our Heavenly Father, the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with us now and always. Amen.