Hiding
Sermon series: Hide & Seek
My friend- and a member of this congregation, Dave Bercher, died at the age of fifty some eight years ago. The room in which we gather today is the brighter and more beautiful because of David’s leadership when it was renovated for our centennial seventeen years ago.
He died of brain cancer- and while his companion and caregiver, Jeanette, described his death as peaceful, he certainly had had a difficult time over the last three years of his life, as the cancer drained him of his quickness, his ability to work, and his mobility- all things we tend to take for granted.
A week before he died, I was visiting him- Jeanette, his close friends, John and Joan, too. We were talking in his room- he seemed unresponsive- sleeping… I was still thinking that if he was able to get off the massive doses of steroids he was taking there could still be some quality time left… When I asked if I could pray before I left, David said “please,” and reached out and took a tight grip on my hand- he had been listening all along- (remember that, folks, people can hear when you think they may not- never fail to keep talking to your loved one- never stop telling them you love them!)
I remember thinking how wrong this all was- how unjust- and how, more than anything in a situation that seemed as hopeless as you could imagine, we needed the presence of God. Ideally, I wanted God’s presence to heal David- but any sign at all would have been a good thing for me, to be sure.
As your pastor, it has been my privilege to share in these important, intimate moments of life and death over the years. And while I believe with all my heart that God walks with us through these moments, there are times, I must confess, when doubt grabs me. I wonder how God could allow this sort of thing; I wonder if God is hiding from us- or maybe taking a break where we can’t see Him.
Have you ever felt like that?
And so I prayed for God’s presence to fill the room, to wrap David tightly in his loving arms, to hold him close and help him know his love, and as I prayed, David gripped my hand tighter and tighter…
Today is the First Sunday in Advent- the beginning of the church year, that time of year when we look forward both to the birth of Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem, and to his returning at the end of history, in all his power and his glory.
And for these four weeks leading to Christmas, we are going to be using an old childhood game- “Hide and Seek,” as a metaphor for our relationship with God. You remember the game- the hiders try and find the best hiding places, and after a count, the seeker comes looking... Where do we look for God; how does God look for us? Can you and I actually hide from God? Does God, as I just asked, ever hide from us?
We will explore these questions together, as we prepare to receive the most wonderful gift of the presence of God in our lives given in the birth of the Baby Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.
If you want support in getting off the frantic tidal wave of “Happy Holidays,” with all the focus on spending (Every Kiss begins with K…), and activity, and having the “perfect Christmas,” I invite you to join with us these next few weeks, as we ask these important questions, and see how the Bible points us towards Jesus- the Hope He offers and the Hope He brings...
We are starting our series with the issue of “Hiding...” I asked the question before and I’ll ask it again. With all the chaos in the world, where is God? Doesn’t it seem as though God is hiding? I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but our world is a mess! We could talk forever about AIDS and how entire countries in Africa are going to be without adults very soon… or the political violence happening across the world, for all kinds of causes, with no consideration for innocents…or the famine that has taken hold in the Horn of Africa- again.
And, why, why, do people get sick with incurable diseases when they’re too young, like Dave- or others that I know- or have known.
It’s so unjust- unfair- and I want to raise my fists and shout at our creator- “WHERE ARE YOU IN ALL OF THIS???” I plan a very serious conversation when I arrive, in any case… And if there is no answer, if God is, in fact, absent, there is no hope- not for any of us...
And yet, as followers of Christ, we claim that the crucified and risen Jesus is present with us- that his Spirit dwells in us- that God is NOT hiding, but is all around us, and this gives us hope- real hope in our world- hope that sustains- hope that promises both that in the midst of chaos, we are valuable and loved, and that life won’t always be so out of control- and we’re not talking pie in the sky, wishful thinking…
Let me take a moment to distinguish “hope,” from a “wish…” The dictionary defines “hope” as “to cherish a desire with the expectation of fulfillment…” or “to long for, with expectation of obtainment…” A wish, on the other hand, is simply “a desire for something unattainable.”
For example, if I have been practicing tennis, and working on it, then it makes sense for me to say before I begin, “I hope I play well…” But if I’m just showing up, and expect to play well because I have cool tennis clothes, then hope has nothing to do with it.
And that is certainly the sense of hope we get from the Bible- the promise of our Hope is that it will be attained- and as we read our Bible, as we look at the lives of faithful Christians around us, we see that there is good reason to want this hope in our own lives.
Even a casual look at the Hebrew Scriptures shows us that the word “Hope” belongs with God: throughout the Psalms, we read “Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you…” (33:22) Or “For God alone my soul waits in silence, my hope is from him…” (62:5) Or “Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God…” (146:5)
We see this Hope in the face of apparent silence from God in our first reading from Isaiah. This is a lament- longing for God’s presence as in the old days- the days of the Exodus, when God was with the Israelites, leading, guiding, feeding, teaching.
Most scholars believe that this portion of Isaiah comes from after the Exile. The Exile was that time in Jewish History after the Babylonians had conquered Judah, and burned the Temple and the City of Jerusalem, and then taken the citizens in chains back to Babylonia. They stayed there for seventy years. Finally, they were set free, and the first group came home to a mess. They had come with such high hopes; they had hoped to restore the temple and rebuild the City of Jerusalem. But those returning lacked the resources and the leadership to get it done, and so they cry out to God.
We want to see you as in days of old, they cry. It’s our fault this all happened- we turned away from you, and then you hid from us... (You could say that God didn’t hide, God simply allowed the people the consequences of their freely choosing to not follow... We know God does this; there are consequences to not living as God would have us live, not because God is waiting to smack us down, but because God honors our choices- and all they bring...) Their perception is that God is hiding from them- and as we all know, perception is reality.
But the reading finishes with a cry of hope: “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand...” It’s a beautiful image, of God sculpting- of being actively engaged in the shaping and forming of each of God’s people... And it concludes with the cry that every parent will recognize: please don’t stay angry; we are your people, your children.
Not long after, we see the promise of hope restored: Ezra and Nehemiah arrive in Jerusalem, the walls are rebuilt- and a new temple- perhaps not as grand as the first one, but still, it’s a temple...) is built and dedicated... There is new hope and renewed faithfulness on the part of the returning exiles.
For Christians, it is in Jesus that we see the ultimate expression of the Hope that God wants to give us! We see in him that hope is not something intangible- it is a person! The question is not “what,” but “WHO?”
Your life- and my life- has meaning and hope, because in Jesus, the creator of the universe, far from hiding from us, became one of us- shared in our lives- our hopes and our dreams, our joys and our sorrows.
Jesus taught us with his life that all people are valuable- loved by God…He spent his life with those polite society wanted nothing to do with- the poor and the outcast. He gave people who had no hope new hope and new life: healing lepers, healing women on the margins of society, casting out demons- even raising the dead!
And from the cross, dying the death that every human being dies- Jesus taught us with his death that even then- at the most extreme moment we ever face, there is hope: “Father,” he prays, “Into your hands I commend my spirit…” He places his hope for a future in God’s hands, when for all the world, it looks as if there is no hope.
In his resurrection from the dead, we see Jesus’ Hope become ours forever! Jesus lives, and that means we shall live always! St. Paul says it this way: “whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord!”
We have hope every day of our lives, because we have the promised presence of Jesus’ Spirit! That’s the wonderful gift given to the children baptized this morning.
We have hope for our future- whatever our future might be- because we have the promise of Jesus walking with us through everything- both good and bad- even through our deaths, whether they happen at the age of 98 in our sleep, or any time earlier, in any circumstance or illness: Jesus promises never to hide; Jesus will be there, holding us, loving us, wiping our tears away as we open our eyes for the first time in the fullness of his presence.
That’s why Mark’s words in our Gospel today are ultimately words of Hope: Jesus will come again at the end of all things- the catalogue of events that starts earlier in Chapter 13: wars, rumors of wars, persecution, natural disasters. Sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it? And the promise is that the same Jesus who walked this earth- who loves us so that he was willing to die and be raised from the dead- will be the one coming again. Folks, that is something to look forward to, not to be afraid of!
Don’t let people take something wonderful- the culmination of history- and turn it into a club to try and beat people to Jesus with…They look through the Bible, and try and see when Jesus will be back, and they threaten fire for those who don’t believe exactly as they do… They just want Jesus back! So do I- but he’ll be here on his schedule, not mine- and until then he’s right here with me- and so I have hope- for today, tomorrow and forever. And so can you!
If you’re looking for hope- for the presence of God this morning, you’ve come to the right place. First, realize that you can’t find it- or do it- or live it on your own. It is something you don’t deserve, and cannot earn. It’s a gift from God, given in the person of Jesus. And Jesus’ promise is to forgive you and help you grow in the love and acceptance that God has always had in mind for you!
Then, share the journey with the brothers and sisters God has given you. Grow together, learn together, share together… We will walk with you- help you learn to pray- to read the Bible- to grow in your faith. And here’s God’s promise to you all today: you will begin to see that hope in places you never dreamed… You could say if God is hiding, God is hiding in plain sight... Open your heart; open your eyes... You will see God; I know; I have.
Dave Bercher’s grip on my hand was painful- but I didn’t want to let go. In some ways, I thought he was expressing his sorrow- his desperation. I thought he was searching for, looking for, wanting God’s presence, but my hand was his contact with life.
But as I’ve thought about it since, I believe David was God’s presence to me- he was dying, and he knew it, even if I didn’t want to recognize it. And the strength and surety of his grip was not desperation, but an expression of his hope, and an offer of that hope to me- to Jeanette- to his friends John and Joan- all of us in the room.
Because when I finished praying, he said in a loud, clear voice, a voice that commanded the room, “Thank you…” It was a voice that said, “I’m glad you’re all here, but I’ll be OK.” He knew far better than I the reality of his Hope in our loving Savior Jesus…And now he knows Him face to face…
In what can be a very, very dark world indeed, we begin our Advent journey with God’s promise not to hide- ever- and so we receive the gift of hope. Look at this candle on the wreath, a small flame, but burning brightly…It points us to Christ, the Light of the World- it is His Gift of Hope to our world.
Keep your eyes open for God this week as you stop and make a difference in the lives of people around you…As you simply stop and talk to someone who is lonely- who thought no one cared…
As you serve wherever God places you this week, look for ways to share the Gift of Hope; they’re all around you! And you will see that hope blossom and flourish in your own heart; you will see God at work- not hidden, right there.
That’s God’s promise- God’s gift to you, and to me, offered in Jesus’ Name, Amen!
