050501 Abraham

A Pleading Priest
Big a idea: God calls us to a “priestly” through hospitality and praying for others.
Don Cowie is a ministry colleague, who works part time at Tenth as an outreach pastor, but he who spends the bulk of his time leading Mosaic, a new church plant.
A few yeas ago Don and Lisa were getting ready to put on a offer on the home where they now live. When the woman who as selling the house found out that Don was a pastor she exclaimed, “My sister in-law (who owned the house and had lived in the house most of her life) is going to be thrilled a priest is going to buying her home!”
Then the woman said, I have a cousin who’s a priest in Italy, do you know him?
Sometimes when you say you’re in or going to into ministry or in you get some strange reactions.
When I was working as part of a corporate conglomerate in Tokyo and would explain that one day I was hoping to go into the Christian ministry, people at times (to use Luther’s expression) would look like a cow staring a locked gate, and then after some time asked, “Does this mean you can never marry?”
Most of you here have never thought about your becoming a pastor or priest… but if you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you will be called to a kind of “pastoral or priestly” role meaning you will be called to act as a kind of intermediary role between God and people and vice-verse. We’re going to see what this looks like as we look the journey of Abraham. If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 18:1-5, 16-33
The Three Visitors
1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way-now that you have come to your servant."
"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."
Abraham Pleads for Sodom
16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD . [e] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [f] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing-to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge [g] of all the earth do right?"
26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"
"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"
He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"
He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"
He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"
He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
The context here is one in which Abraham receives 3 unexpected guests, 2 of whom we know are angels and one appears be the LORD in human form.

We see how in the heat of the day, during siesta time, Abraham this 99 year old moves quickly to arrange for water to be brought for them and arranges for a meal to be prepared and served for these three guests. Abraham acts likes his guest would doing him a favor by letting him serve them. God deems hospitality to be an important characteristic of a person who is considered righteous.

Hospitality doesn’t mean we’re able to set a table like Martha Stewart or that we can cook like Rob Fennie, the celebrated chef at Lumiere.

Hospitality, does mean, as late priest Henri Nouwen, put it that we create space in our heart for people.

Part of the way we can act as priest, that i.e. part of the way we can re-present God to others is by creating space for them. A way we can reflect the face of God to others is by welcoming others even as God has welcomed us.

These 3 guests end up telling Abraham that he and Sarah will have a baby in a year. Sarah is 90 and ends us laughing in disbelief and then as the guests are about to go, they also confide in Abraham that they are about to bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah because the outcry of the oppressed against these communities is so great.

What were Sodom and Gomorrah like? Later in Genesis, we see that people of Sodom and Gomorrah have no hesitation about gang raping people. And in others parts of the Scriptures we see that they were considered arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned about the plight of the poor and needy.

God is about to bring judgment on them.

(BTW, once in a while you hear people say, I only believe in a God of love and not judgment. I could never believe in a God who judges.

But part of what it means to be a God of love is that he brings judgment. If God never judged he would not be loving.

God is a God of forgiveness and he is a God of love, but he is also a God who judges. (Someone told me that because she had been violated by a man, and the man glibly said that God forgave him, her view of God was tainted.) If God never judged people who use their power to sexually assault someone, he wouldn’t be a God of mercy to victim.

If God never judges the people and institutions that oppress the poor and vulnerable, he’s not being merciful to them. In verse 20, we hear God saying that the cries of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are deafening. He’s about to judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual immorality and violence and their complete unconcern for the plight of the poor and oppressed.
The 3 men set out for Sodom, but as Abraham approached God’s judge’s bench, he’s about to intercede on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham says, “Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad?” What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of them all? Wouldn't you spare the city for the sake of those fifty innocents? I can't believe you'd do that, kill off the good and the bad alike as if there were no difference between them. Will not the Judge of all the Earth do what is just?"
GOD said, "If I find fifty decent people in the city of Sodom, I'll spare the place just for them."
Abraham come back, "Do I, a mere mortal of dust and ashes, dare open my mouth again to God Almighty? What if the fifty fall short by five--would you destroy the city because of just five less?"
God said, "I won't destroy it if there are forty-five."
Abraham spoke up again, "What if you only find forty?"
"Neither will I destroy it if for forty."
He said, "Master, don't be irritated with me, but what if only thirty are found?"
"No, I won't do it if I find thirty."
He pushed on, "I know I'm trying your patience, Master, but how about for twenty?"
"I won't destroy it for twenty."
"Don't get angry, Master--this is the last time. What if you only come up with ten?"
"For the sake of only ten, I won't destroy the city."
When GOD finished talking with Abraham, he left. And Abraham went home.
In response to Abraham’s prayer, we see that God is willing to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there are just 10 decent people.

One of the ways we can act as a priest to others, is through hospitality, another way we can act as a priest to others is by praying for them.

It seems that in this passage, that God intends to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their grievous sins, but it also seems that he’s willing to allow Abraham to influence his decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Scriptures teach that certain things are “decreed by God” and prayer or no prayer God will do it. But the Scripture also seems to suggest in passages like this that there are certain things that are not decreed by God in an absolute unchanging way and that our prayers can influence the way God interacts with people and the world.

It’s an amazing thought that we (to use Abraham’s words) are mere dust and ashes can influence the living God through our prayers.

One of the ways we can bless others is by praying for them.

A couple of weeks ago a person named Steve who serves me as a local spiritual director was sharing how he had been battling with a very serious form of cancer in his neck and lymph nodes. The cancer was so aggressive that his neck began protruding. He and his wife Jean didn’t pray for healing. They both resigned themselves to the fact that it was time for him to die. I can see Steve saying, “Oh well, I’m going to die.”

But others prayed for him and he experienced a miraculous healing… He went to the oncologist they did more testing and discovered he was cancer free. Even the oncologist acknowledged he had never seen anything like this in all of his years as a doctor. He acknowledged that this was a miracle.

Apparently, unlike Steve and Jean sincerely thought, it was not the time decreed for Steve to die. People prayed for him and his life has been extended.

We can also act as priest to people by praying for God’s to draw people to Himself.

I believe through prayer we can we can mediate of the presence of God to people.
Over last few years, I have been encouraged some people in my world who I’ve been praying for who have come from nominally Buddhist backgrounds, but have no relationship with God, come into a living connection with God through Jesus Christ.
(BTW, most of the people in my world who I’m praying for would come into a relationship with God, there is NO clear visible movement toward God….
Thomas Merton says sometimes we pray for God’s grace in people’s lives, but God doesn’t seem to answer right away, because he knows if people reject their hearts will grow even harder.)

We can bless people by praying for them and we can also bless communities by praying of them and here we see Abraham praying for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

John Dawson is a respected Christian leader from Southern California. A friend of his from the police academy was visiting the Los Angeles morgue. During any given week the morgue received about 80 dead bodies, many of them murder victims. His friend have you seen a major change in that 80 dead people a week pattern? The man at morgue said during the 2 weeks of LA Olympics the strangest thing happened. There were no murders… John remembered how during the LA Olympics 11,000 Christians from all over the world came to LA to pray and reach out to people with the love of God and how people from around the world were praying for LA then.

We can as a priest to the city by praying for it.

Many of us may tend to think that the destiny of cities and nations are in the hands of people who are quite corrupt. A lot of us Canadians may especially be inclined to think this in light of what’s being revealed with the sponsorship scandal.

But what this passage is teaching is that future of a city can be determined by the righteous. (As Darrell Johnson has rightly said, the health of the city depends on the health of the church.)

We can act as priest to the city by praying for it.

And Abraham has the potential to save Sodom and Gomorrah, but as you will find out if you read the next chapter, his doesn’t save Sodom and Gomorrah.

Some people will say as long as you believe hard enough or long enough or well enough--you’ll get what you want in prayer. Not so, Abraham prays this extraordinarily humble and bold prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah to be delivered and he doesn’t get what he “wants.” Sarah “gets” what she always wanted. She gets a baby when she’s 90 years old, but she doesn’t have great faith. When God tells her she’s going to have a son, she laughs in disbelief. When the greatest pray-er of all time, Jesus Christ prays that his cup of suffering would be removed, what does he get, he got the cross and forsaken by God.

So, even as we see that we can act as priest to others through prayer, prayer is no guarantee that things will turn out the way we want!!!

If you’ll let me cycle to the text one more time, I want to say one more thing as we prepare to come to the Lord’s table.

Theologians have pointed out that this text seems to teach that the presence of righteous individuals may be able to effect saving of others.

You notice in Abraham’s prayer… there is progression where Abraham says God you always do what is right and just, with no exceptions. Would you nuke the cities if there were 50 righteous? God says, No. I’d be willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for 50 righteous people…. What if there were 5 less? I’d spare it… then 40, 30, 20, 10… then Abraham stops..

We don’t why he stops here… maybe he just loses his nerve and doesn’t think he can test God’s patience any further… or maybe he thinks a community of 10 could change Sodom and Gomorrah. Years later it was recognized that if you had a minimum 10 people you could start a synagogue, a community of 10 was seem as a minimum starting point through which you could effect social change.

But imagine that Abraham had said what if there was just one righteous person? Would you save the cities for just one?

I believe that God would have yes, because there was one righteous who 2000 stood and God said, if we stand in solidarity with him we would be saved.

I think many of us understand intuitively how this principle also works in reverse, particularly those of you like me who are originally from cultures that are more group rather than individually oriented.

When you come from an Asian country like me and if you start getting involved in shoplifting, drug dealing, and joy-riding as a young person, it’s not only you who bears shame, but so do your parents and your clan.

Sometimes people of African descent, regard people from the West who live with certain kind of privileges regard Westerners as bearing guilt because their wealth, if you trace things thing back historically, in part stems for their ancestors who abused and oppressed African their ancestors.

We can be deemed guilty by an association with others who are guilty.

What this passage shows us is that in God’s mind the reverse seems to also be true, that through an association with a righteous person we can be saved.

There was one truly righteousness in the history of Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life that God required. What did he get for that? He got nailed to the cross and on the cross he absorbed our sins in his body. The Bible when chose to stand with Jesus Christ, God regards our sins as having been paid for by Christ…

This is why on the night before Jesus went to the cross he took bread and broke it and said this is my body broken for you… this my blood shed for you… as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim my death till I come…

And if you are here and you have aligned your life to Christ come and partake… If not be in prayer…

050424

Big Idea: As God reveals himself as Almighty, we can change and experience a new name and heart.

One time my grandfather and I and some of my cousins were walking down a street in Tokyo, with my grandfather at the front.

My 80 something year old grandfather was walking somewhat slowly, and I started to walk ahead of him.

My grandfather, barked and said something like (translating roughly from Japanese to English), “What the hell do you think your doing? Get behind me!”

Like when the president of the U.S. is being filmed for the news, my grandfather, a corporate ceo didn’t want his punk grandkid walking in front of him in public.

All of my siblings and my cousins, were all intimidated my grandfather. When we’d all go to dinner, we are trying to avoid sitting next to my grandfather because we are afraid to be scolded. We are like Blaik (my super-laid back cousin from Hawaii), you’re sitting beside grandpa.

But when my grandfather was in his 80s, he was experiencing some serious business challenges and this humbled him to some extent, he heard the Gospel and made a commitment of his life to God.

My cousin Blaik (the super laid back one from Hawaii), was amazed to witness this 85 year old man changing. He didn’t become perfect, but he became gentler, more considerate, and for the first time his life—he started doing dishes!

Some people raise the question can people change? And in particular, can those who are older and set in their ways change?

My grandfather’s life demonstrate even people in their 80’s can change.

And Abram, of the Bible demonstrates that even people in their 90s change.

Abraham is considered a man of great faith, but he has his seasons of struggling to trust God.

In Genesis chapter 16, as we saw last week from Mardi’s message, we find Abram trying to “help” God.

God had promised Abram a child, but he figures he and his wife are too old and they figure it’s going to be too difficult for God to give them a child. So they decide Abram should sleep with the maid-servant Hagar. They don’t really believe that God can deliver in this way for them. 13 years pass and God reveals himself again to Abram and we’re going to see how this becomes a foundation for a new and transforming work.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 17.

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
3 Abram fell facedown, (Abram bows down in the presence of God and at the close we’re give you an opportunity and to come kneel before God in prayer) and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner-those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
15 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
God comes to Abram when he is 99 years old and says, I am El Shaddai i.e., I am God Almighty, the God who can do all things--walk before me and be blameless.

Abram for the last 13 years or so has been struggling to trust God; instead of waiting for God to fulfill the promise to him that he would have a son through Sarai, he has taken his wife’s maid servant Hagar and has had a child with her. Abram and Sarai are so desperate to have child that they engineer a plan that this is outside of God’s will to have a baby. And while the child is blessed, the child ends up causing all kinds of complications.

After 13 years of struggling to trust God, God reveals himself to Abram, and says in vs. 1 “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.”

It’s as God reveals his character to Abram and says, I am El Shaddai, the God Almighty, the one who can do all things that Abram can really walk before God and become blameless.

It’s as God reveals himself to us that we can learn to walk with God and become blameless.

Thomas Merton was a transfer student at Columbia University in the 1930’s. He had been kicked out of Cambridge for getting a young woman pregnant, so he leaves the U.K. and comes to the U.S. and enrolls at Columbia in New York.

Merton was bright, but he was a “player” and quite a heavy drinker and smoker. One day he walked into a bookstore with some extra money in his pocket. He was taking a class in medieval literature and he saw a book on the shelf called the Spirit of Medieval Philosophy. He bought it along with a number of other books when on the train ride home he discovered it was written by a Catholic he wanted to throw the book out of the window.

But he opened the book up on the train and began reading. He was expecting a notion of God that was superstitious and vague.

Instead, he found a definition of God that was deep, precise and simple.

He read for the first time about a concept called the aseity of God. The doctrine that God God as a being requires no cause to exist, he reads that it’s God’s very nature is to exist.

Merton has this conception of a God who was vague and jealous creature but this book on Medieval philosophy described God as the perfect being.

This new understanding of God becomes a foundation for Merton to later come to God and experience change.

As was true for Abraham and Merton, as we come to understand God as Almighty, as the one who can do all things that we too can experience change.

God says, I am El Shaddai, the God who can do all things walk before me and be blameless. Blameless does not mean absolute sinful perfection, it does mean having God at the center of our lives and each part of our life is oriented toward God, it means that we walk with God in trust and obedience.

It is as God reveals his himself as Almighty that we too can become blameless.

Again to illustrate from Thomas Merton, some time after giving his life to God in the context of a Catholic church, he was walking with his college friend Bob Lax. Bob says, what do want to be Tom? Merton’s real desire? To be an esteemed writer for the New York Times. But he wanted to answer in a more “spiritual” way so he says, “I want to be a good Catholic.”

Bob responds, “Do you know you should have said?”

You should said, “I want to be a saint.”

Merton says, “How could I become a Saint?”

Bob says by wanting to.

Merton, “Can’t be that simple.”

Bob says, “Don’t you believe that God could make you what he created you to be, if you would consent to let him do it?

When we understand that God is El Shaddai, i.e. Almighty that he can do all things, we can believe that God can make us in the kind of people who walk with him are blameless.

Then God says to Abram in vs. 2, I will confirm my covenant between me and you will greatly increase your numbers.

Vs. 4 As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations: No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations.

So, God reveals his character to Abram as God Almighty and says be blameless, he then reiterates his promise to Abram about being a father then re-names him.

In this ancient near eastern culture, a name was more than a label; a name was a revealer of one’s character and destiny.

Abram means father, Abraham means father of a many…

When we understand that God is El Shaddai, i.e. can all do all things we believe that when he gives us a new name, he can also give us a new name and a character and a new destiny.

He comes to Sarai, whose name meaning is not certain, but scholars believe it means contentious! If you were here last week or if you’ve read Genesis 16, you realize she was contentious, particularly in relationship to her maid-servant Hagar, her maid-servant’s son Ishmael, and to her husband!

God says you will now be called Sarah, which means princess…

God renames, Abram to Abraham, i.e. from father to father of many, he renames Sarai to Sarah, i.e. from contentious to Princess… Years also Jesus renames Simon this impetuous, shifting person to Peter which means rock…and in all these cases the renaming sets in motion a process of transformation their character and destiny change…

When El Shaddai, God Almighty renames us and change us…

From Fool to wise, from coward to courageous, from despairing to hopeful, from rejected to received, from break of things to builder…

As God reveals himself as Almighty, we can change and experience a new name and a new character.

Then in our story we read about God instructing Abram and his males that belonged to him to undergo circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant to them, i.e. as sign that He would increase Abraham’s numbers and give his descendants land.

Circumcision was a ritual that involved the cutting of the foreskin of the male sexual organ as a sign that the person belonged to God.

Why the sex organ? Some scholars have pointed out that God had Abraham mark the foreskin of his sexual organs because it was a sign that through Abraham God was going to create a people for himself.

As Philo et al have pointed out, circumcision also done to foster literal hygienic, purity and to symbolize purity of heart.

Like baptism, circumcision was a sign that God plans to raise a people for Himself who are set apart and purified.

Later God in the Scriptures, particularly in the prophets, God speaks of how he will circumcise our hearts, of how he will make to a people for himself who hearts are purified by water, the by writing his laws on our hearts by his spirit.

Paul later in the Bible would talk about how physical circumcision had no real value unless it was accompanied by circumcision of the heart.

The God who can do all things gives us a new name which signifies a new character, but he also who spiritually circumcises us by cutting our heart.

C.S. Lewis says God’s intent is not to make us into “nice” people, but new people.

If God wanted just wanted to makes us nice people, it wouldn’t cost him much. He could us send to an etiquette course with Miss Manners (aka Judith Martin).
But he wanted to make us new. This will cost him considerably more.
In order of to make us God sends us his son Jesus Christ to die on a cross.
His body cut so that our hearts could be cut and made new.
He was absorbed our sins in his body so that we could be free of them.
He was crushed so that we could be made whole.
As we see as himself as Almighty and the all loving one, who gave us his son Jesus Christ we can receive a new name and heart.

As we close this service, I want to point out that Abram in response to God’s revelation bows down before God.

In this posture of worship and receiving, Abram receives a new name and a new heart…

If you’re here and you want God to change you, I’m going to invite come and kneel and simply yes Lord, change me, help me to walk with you and make me blameless.

Bob Lax said to Tom Merton, “(If God can do all things) don’t you believe that God could make you what he created you to be, if you would consent to let him do it?

So, if you’re here and wanting God to change you, rename you and renovate your heart, come and bow and by coming and kneeling you’re say El Shaddai, God who can do all things I consent to your work in me. If you’re shy, but wanting to come, come.

In Ezekiel 36:24-27 God says:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my

(050410) Abraham

Abraham M5 Covenant

The Da Vinci Code is a very popular, compelling novel. The novel suggests that Jesus Christ had a secret relationship with Mary Magdalene and they created a line of physical children that are alive today.

Some people read this book and think it’s a kind of historical document and forget it’s a novel. As one professor at the University of London has pointed out a lot of the Da Vinci code is based on ideas like the Holy Grail which first emerged in a Medieval novel by Chretien de Troyes at the end of the 12th Century. This University of London professor has said believing in the reality of the Holy Grail, on which the novel the Da Vince code is based, would be like a 1000 years from now, someone believing that around the 20th and 21st centuries there was an actual place called Middle Earth because there of a book called the Lord of the Rings.

Sometime novels and books can shake a person’s faith.

Ted Turner the media mogul who founded CNN is very hostile to Christianity. He left his wife Jane Fonda when she began to place her faith in Christ. When Ted was a young person he wanted to become a Christian missionary, but his younger sister died a tragic death and Ted became angry at God and turned from God.

The circumstances of our life that can cause us to doubt God.

And even Abraham “the great man of faith” goes seems wrestle through a time of doubt with God. We’re going to explore this part of his journey this morning.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 15.

To give you the context, Abraham’s nephew Lot, a resident of Sodom, has been captured in and prisoner in a war. So Abraham deploys his men to attack the people holding him. In the middle of the night, Abraham’s men attack Lot’s captor’s and spring and Lot and his prisoners from Sodom free.

It seems like after this attack, Abraham is afraid of a counter-attack from his enemies…

Listen to the assurance God gives him in Genesis 15:1

God comes to him in a vision and says:

1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward."
2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD , what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness.
When Abraham is apparently afraid of a counter attack from the people he has attacked to rescue his nephew Lot, God comes to him and says, “don’t be afraid, I am your shield.”

There are times in our lives when we are threatened by something. For us it probably won’t be literal enemies of war, but it may be people who want to do us harm in some way. Or perhaps it’s the threat of losing a job or losing money, or losing our health. Or of the threat possibility losing relationship or losing someone in our lives. In these times of threat, like Abraham, we too may be tempted to doubt God.

But God comes to Abraham while he’s afraid and says, “Don’t be afraid. I am your shield and your very great reward.”

When we truly believe that God is our shield and protector, we need not fear.

The Bible says 366 times, “Do not fear or Do not be afraid.” We have a “Do not fear” for every day of the year and one for leap year!

Then God says to Abraham I am your (very great) reward.

This text can also be translated, “Your reward shall be very great.” It’s interesting that in chapter 14 Abraham refuses to receive some of the war booty from the King of Sodom after Abraham has rescued Lot and a number of the King Sodom’s subjects. The King wants to reward Abraham for his help, but Abraham says to the King of Sodom, “Keep the war booty, I don’t want you to be able to say, you made me rich.” Then the Lord come to Abraham and says your reward is very great and then God re-iterates his promise that he will bless him with offspring and with land. Part of Abraham’s reward is offspring and land. And the book of Hebrews tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

But the greatest reward that Abraham receives is not land or even offspring, but God himself. The text can read as the NIV puts it, God says, “I am your very great reward.”

When we understand that God is our shield And our reward, we can live without fear.

If something else is our primary reward or treasure, we will have reason to fear. If our beauty is our “reward” or our intelligence in our “reward” our career success or our financial success is our “reward” or what we own is our “reward” we’ll have reason to fear because we will eventually lost all these things.

If our beauty is our reward and treasure, we’ll definitely lose it (botox and plastic surgery can only do so much!), if our mind is our reward eventually we’ll it (I have a fairly good memory for conversations, but eventually I’ll lose this), if our career success is our reward we’ll eventually lose our “effectiveness” curve, if money is our treasure one way or another, we’ll eventually lose it. You’ve the heard about the wealthy person who died and someone asked how much did the person leave behind? The answer, this person left ALL of it.

But if we know that God is our reward we have no reason to fear. God cannot be taken from us!

God approaches Abraham in his time of apparent fear and doubt and says, “Don’t be afraid, I am your shield AND your very great reward.”

But how does Abraham this a great man of faith respond? Does Abraham say amen, I trust you…

No he ahum, by the way, uh, while we’re on the subject of rewards…
A long time ago, you talked my having a child, but I'm childless and it looks like Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything. You've given me no children, and now a house servant is going to get it all.
In this culture a person not having a child would be considered a real disaster. A person in Abraham’s shoes would be thinking: Who will carry my name? Who will take care of me when I am old? Who will inherit my estate?

Abraham remembers that God told him years ago that he would have a child, but it hasn’t happened.

When Abram was 75 God promised him a child. Now he may be about 85 and still he has no child…

When you wait this long, you tend to doubt whether the thing you’re waiting will actually come…

Beloved commentator Matthew Henry has said, “While promised mercies are delayed our impatience is apt to conclude them denied.”

We know Abraham has concluded it’s highly unlikely that God is going to give him and Sarah the child he has promised. Abraham is contemplating adopting his servant Eliezer of Damascus to be son and heir.

According to ancient Nuzi documents, in culture a childless man could adopt a servant as his child to be inheritor and protector of his estate.

But, in vs. 4 God says to Abraham the heir will come from your own body.

But this promise takes a long time to be fulfilled….

He received initial promise that he would have a child when he was 75 years old. He’s now maybe 85. He waits another 15 years for the promise that he would have a child with Sarah is fulfilled.

He ends up waiting a total of 25 years for this promise to be fulfilled!

When we’re a waiting this long, even if our name is Abraham, it’s easy for doubt to set in….

Part of our journey with God involves waiting for a promise to be fulfilled or a dream to come to pass. Everyone one of us has unfulfilled dreams. Everyone has something we’re longing for… a door to open to a school, or job, a relationship, a child, a loved one experience some kind “turn around.”

You and I (either have) and likely are waiting for something significant in our lives.

Being in a place of WAITING… WAITING…. WAITING can be frustrating.

The book of Proverbs tells us candidly that hope deferred can make the heart sick.

WAITING for someone… or something is hard.

I don’t claim to know why God allows us to wait nor do I claim to understand his timing.

I do know through waiting God can mysteriously grow our souls in a way that having things immediately fulfilled cannot.

Someone has said God puts us in WAIIIIITTT training program.

John Ortberg… says what God does in us while we’re waiting for is just as important as what we’re waiting for… 2x

God can do things in us while we’re waiting, but waiting can cause us to doubt God…
Even after God says to Abraham, I am your shield and reward, Abraham seems to say to God, yeah, yeah, that’s great and all that, but what good is since I am childless? Will my servant Eliezer be my heir and the inheritor of my estate?
Then GOD says "Don't worry, he won't be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir." Then God took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants!
From that part of Near East more than 8000 stars are clearly visible. God’s point was not your offspring will be about 8000, but your offspring--will be more than you can count. You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
And then for some reason, Abraham after doubting simply believes God takes God at his word.

Abraham had doubts about whether God could protect him from his enemies or whether God would be able to give him the child as promised, as a senior citizen.

There’s a time for doubt on our journey… If we’re never willing to be open to the possibility of doubt in something we’re living denial,: if we’re never willing to doubt an image we have of yourself of our family of our company of our faith… we’re living a kind of non-reality.

On the other hand if you’re never willing to doubt your doubts… we’re also in a non-reality too.

Part of what faith is being willing to doubt your doubts.

It takes a certain level of faith to believe in God. The existence of God cannot be proven with airtight argument; but then again no scientific worldview can be proven with absolute certainty either (if you doubt that just read Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions). But it also takes a certain level of faith not believe… Ian Brown, a reporter for the Globe and Mail, is real skeptic when it comes to faith and God and Christianity. But in a recent article Brown points out that there are an increasing number of scholars who are not Christians who are pointing out that the universe seems far to complex to have come into being by chance. He cites a man who he’s met named Paul Brownback (who is a Christian and one of the best read people the journalist has ever met) and Brownback says the statistical likelihood of the 200-odd bones of the human body ending up in their position that enables one that allows us to walk upright due to random selection alone is one in 10 to the power of 357. The population of the earth is about 6 plus 9 zeros. We’re talking about a figure with 357 zeros.

It takes faith to believe that God made us; it also takes faith to believe that we are result of random chance.
Part of what growing in faith means that we doubt our doubts.

Abraham believes what God says in and his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

Righteousness doesn’t so much mean somehow attain of absolute moral perfect, Righteousness means we are in a right relationship. A right relationship with God and out of that a right relationship with God a right relationship with people.

And trust is at heart of a good relationship. It’s as we truly trust God that we enter into a right relationship with God because what God requires is a right relationship with him and a right relationship is one in which we TRUST.

God gives Abraham a renewed promise regarding his offspring. Then in vs. 7 he reiterates his promises to Abraham about the land. And Abraham with maybe just a bit of residual doubt, ok vs. 8 HOW will I know that all this will be mine?
GOD said, "Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon."
Abraham brings all these animals to him, God has him split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. As the sun went goes a deep sleep overcomes Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, which symbolized the presence of God, moved between the split carcasses. That's when GOD made a covenant with Abram: saying I am giving you this land…
Abraham lived in a culture of covenants. We have something similar, we have contracts. If we are going to renovate our kitchen, we will hire a contractor and contractor says it will cost X amount of dollars to renovate your kitchen and let’s say the person renovates your kitchen but gives you an invoice that is 33% higher than the quote he originally gave you. You’ll contest it, but unless you have a written contract it’s going to difficult to make your case.

In Abraham’s culture the way they made a contract was not on paper but through a kind of drama that they acted out.

They would cut up the animals and walk between them and say if one of us breaks our side of the covenant let us be cut up and cursed like these animals. Apparently, it was a very effective way for people to keep their covenants. (Most couples don’t choose to use this ancient covenant making ritual when they get married, but back then it was effective).

After Abraham cuts up the animals into pieces, God in the night, symbolized by the blazing torch, passes through pieces of the cut animals. And what God is saying is this: if I fail to fulfill my part of the covenant, let me cut up and cursed like these animals.

God is saying to Abraham, I willing to die to demonstrate my commitment to you.

Typically both sides parties would walk through the cut animals and would invoke a curse on themselves if they failed to keep the terms of the agreement. But it’s interesting that Abraham is not required to walk through the pieces of the cut animals, only God does. It’s as though God is Abraham even if you fail, I will not fail you.

Centuries later, there was another day when darkness and dread fell upon the earth... In fact the dread was so heavy that day became night at noon.

God in Christ hung on a Roman Cross.

What God is saying to us from the cross is this: even though you have broken your covenant with me, I will bear the penalty for your failing to keep your covenant for me, by allowing myself to be cut and crush and cursed so that you can be forgiven and set.

What the cross is that our sins are far more serious than we ever dared imagine, but God’s love for us is far greater than we ever dared hope.

There are times in our journey when we will likely doubt God. It may be during a time of anxiety or loss or may during a time of waiting for something…

During these times when it seems that a dark mist covers the face of God… We have this assurance of God’s commitment to willingness to be cut cursed in order to keep his covenant with us… And in the cross we have the ultimate sign of his love for us.

Let’s say your partner is supposed to be with you at a certain agreed upon hour and they’re half an hour late. If you’ve always known this person to be faithful to you, you’ll likely not conclude this person is having an affair or at this moment gambling away their money playing poker, if the person has always been trustworthy, you’ll say, I don’t what he or she is doing right now… but I will trust something has come up. It could be that he or she is caught in traffic and their cell phone battery has run out. If this person has always been faithful you can trust them even when you don’t know what they’re doing.

So, it is with God there are times when we don’t know what God is doing, why he’s making us wait… but if look to his friendship Abraham which a model of our friendship with God and if look to the cross and remember that God died for us in Christ…
We can with the Paul in Romans 8:32: 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
And we can with Abraham yes, God is my shield and my very great reward.

(050410) Abraham

Abraham M5 Covenant

The Da Vinci Code is a very popular, compelling novel. The novel suggests that Jesus Christ had a secret relationship with Mary Magdalene and they created a line of physical children that are alive today.

Some people read this book and think it’s a kind of historical document and forget it’s a novel. As one professor at the University of London has pointed out a lot of the Da Vinci code is based on ideas like the Holy Grail which first emerged in a Medieval novel by Chretien de Troyes at the end of the 12th Century. This University of London professor has said believing in the reality of the Holy Grail, on which the novel the Da Vince code is based, would be like a 1000 years from now, someone believing that around the 20th and 21st centuries there was an actual place called Middle Earth because there of a book called the Lord of the Rings.

Sometime novels and books can shake a person’s faith.

Ted Turner the media mogul who founded CNN is very hostile to Christianity. He left his wife Jane Fonda when she began to place her faith in Christ. When Ted was a young person he wanted to become a Christian missionary, but his younger sister died a tragic death and Ted became angry at God and turned from God.

The circumstances of our life that can cause us to doubt God.

And even Abraham “the great man of faith” goes seems wrestle through a time of doubt with God. We’re going to explore this part of his journey this morning.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Genesis 15.

To give you the context, Abraham’s nephew Lot, a resident of Sodom, has been captured in and prisoner in a war. So Abraham deploys his men to attack the people holding him. In the middle of the night, Abraham’s men attack Lot’s captor’s and spring and Lot and his prisoners from Sodom free.

It seems like after this attack, Abraham is afraid of a counter-attack from his enemies…

Listen to the assurance God gives him in Genesis 15:1

God comes to him in a vision and says:

1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward."
2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD , what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness.
When Abraham is apparently afraid of a counter attack from the people he has attacked to rescue his nephew Lot, God comes to him and says, “don’t be afraid, I am your shield.”

There are times in our lives when we are threatened by something. For us it probably won’t be literal enemies of war, but it may be people who want to do us harm in some way. Or perhaps it’s the threat of losing a job or losing money, or losing our health. Or of the threat possibility losing relationship or losing someone in our lives. In these times of threat, like Abraham, we too may be tempted to doubt God.

But God comes to Abraham while he’s afraid and says, “Don’t be afraid. I am your shield and your very great reward.”

When we truly believe that God is our shield and protector, we need not fear.

The Bible says 366 times, “Do not fear or Do not be afraid.” We have a “Do not fear” for every day of the year and one for leap year!

Then God says to Abraham I am your (very great) reward.

This text can also be translated, “Your reward shall be very great.” It’s interesting that in chapter 14 Abraham refuses to receive some of the war booty from the King of Sodom after Abraham has rescued Lot and a number of the King Sodom’s subjects. The King wants to reward Abraham for his help, but Abraham says to the King of Sodom, “Keep the war booty, I don’t want you to be able to say, you made me rich.” Then the Lord come to Abraham and says your reward is very great and then God re-iterates his promise that he will bless him with offspring and with land. Part of Abraham’s reward is offspring and land. And the book of Hebrews tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

But the greatest reward that Abraham receives is not land or even offspring, but God himself. The text can read as the NIV puts it, God says, “I am your very great reward.”

When we understand that God is our shield And our reward, we can live without fear.

If something else is our primary reward or treasure, we will have reason to fear. If our beauty is our “reward” or our intelligence in our “reward” our career success or our financial success is our “reward” or what we own is our “reward” we’ll have reason to fear because we will eventually lost all these things.

If our beauty is our reward and treasure, we’ll definitely lose it (botox and plastic surgery can only do so much!), if our mind is our reward eventually we’ll it (I have a fairly good memory for conversations, but eventually I’ll lose this), if our career success is our reward we’ll eventually lose our “effectiveness” curve, if money is our treasure one way or another, we’ll eventually lose it. You’ve the heard about the wealthy person who died and someone asked how much did the person leave behind? The answer, this person left ALL of it.

But if we know that God is our reward we have no reason to fear. God cannot be taken from us!

God approaches Abraham in his time of apparent fear and doubt and says, “Don’t be afraid, I am your shield AND your very great reward.”

But how does Abraham this a great man of faith respond? Does Abraham say amen, I trust you…

No he ahum, by the way, uh, while we’re on the subject of rewards…
A long time ago, you talked my having a child, but I'm childless and it looks like Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything. You've given me no children, and now a house servant is going to get it all.
In this culture a person not having a child would be considered a real disaster. A person in Abraham’s shoes would be thinking: Who will carry my name? Who will take care of me when I am old? Who will inherit my estate?

Abraham remembers that God told him years ago that he would have a child, but it hasn’t happened.

When Abram was 75 God promised him a child. Now he may be about 85 and still he has no child…

When you wait this long, you tend to doubt whether the thing you’re waiting will actually come…

Beloved commentator Matthew Henry has said, “While promised mercies are delayed our impatience is apt to conclude them denied.”

We know Abraham has concluded it’s highly unlikely that God is going to give him and Sarah the child he has promised. Abraham is contemplating adopting his servant Eliezer of Damascus to be son and heir.

According to ancient Nuzi documents, in culture a childless man could adopt a servant as his child to be inheritor and protector of his estate.

But, in vs. 4 God says to Abraham the heir will come from your own body.

But this promise takes a long time to be fulfilled….

He received initial promise that he would have a child when he was 75 years old. He’s now maybe 85. He waits another 15 years for the promise that he would have a child with Sarah is fulfilled.

He ends up waiting a total of 25 years for this promise to be fulfilled!

When we’re a waiting this long, even if our name is Abraham, it’s easy for doubt to set in….

Part of our journey with God involves waiting for a promise to be fulfilled or a dream to come to pass. Everyone one of us has unfulfilled dreams. Everyone has something we’re longing for… a door to open to a school, or job, a relationship, a child, a loved one experience some kind “turn around.”

You and I (either have) and likely are waiting for something significant in our lives.

Being in a place of WAITING… WAITING…. WAITING can be frustrating.

The book of Proverbs tells us candidly that hope deferred can make the heart sick.

WAITING for someone… or something is hard.

I don’t claim to know why God allows us to wait nor do I claim to understand his timing.

I do know through waiting God can mysteriously grow our souls in a way that having things immediately fulfilled cannot.

Someone has said God puts us in WAIIIIITTT training program.

John Ortberg… says what God does in us while we’re waiting for is just as important as what we’re waiting for… 2x

God can do things in us while we’re waiting, but waiting can cause us to doubt God…
Even after God says to Abraham, I am your shield and reward, Abraham seems to say to God, yeah, yeah, that’s great and all that, but what good is since I am childless? Will my servant Eliezer be my heir and the inheritor of my estate?
Then GOD says "Don't worry, he won't be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir." Then God took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants!
From that part of Near East more than 8000 stars are clearly visible. God’s point was not your offspring will be about 8000, but your offspring--will be more than you can count. You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
And then for some reason, Abraham after doubting simply believes God takes God at his word.

Abraham had doubts about whether God could protect him from his enemies or whether God would be able to give him the child as promised, as a senior citizen.

There’s a time for doubt on our journey… If we’re never willing to be open to the possibility of doubt in something we’re living denial,: if we’re never willing to doubt an image we have of yourself of our family of our company of our faith… we’re living a kind of non-reality.

On the other hand if you’re never willing to doubt your doubts… we’re also in a non-reality too.

Part of what faith is being willing to doubt your doubts.

It takes a certain level of faith to believe in God. The existence of God cannot be proven with airtight argument; but then again no scientific worldview can be proven with absolute certainty either (if you doubt that just read Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions). But it also takes a certain level of faith not believe… Ian Brown, a reporter for the Globe and Mail, is real skeptic when it comes to faith and God and Christianity. But in a recent article Brown points out that there are an increasing number of scholars who are not Christians who are pointing out that the universe seems far to complex to have come into being by chance. He cites a man who he’s met named Paul Brownback (who is a Christian and one of the best read people the journalist has ever met) and Brownback says the statistical likelihood of the 200-odd bones of the human body ending up in their position that enables one that allows us to walk upright due to random selection alone is one in 10 to the power of 357. The population of the earth is about 6 plus 9 zeros. We’re talking about a figure with 357 zeros.

It takes faith to believe that God made us; it also takes faith to believe that we are result of random chance.
Part of what growing in faith means that we doubt our doubts.

Abraham believes what God says in and his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

Righteousness doesn’t so much mean somehow attain of absolute moral perfect, Righteousness means we are in a right relationship. A right relationship with God and out of that a right relationship with God a right relationship with people.

And trust is at heart of a good relationship. It’s as we truly trust God that we enter into a right relationship with God because what God requires is a right relationship with him and a right relationship is one in which we TRUST.

God gives Abraham a renewed promise regarding his offspring. Then in vs. 7 he reiterates his promises to Abraham about the land. And Abraham with maybe just a bit of residual doubt, ok vs. 8 HOW will I know that all this will be mine?
GOD said, "Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon."
Abraham brings all these animals to him, God has him split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. As the sun went goes a deep sleep overcomes Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, which symbolized the presence of God, moved between the split carcasses. That's when GOD made a covenant with Abram: saying I am giving you this land…
Abraham lived in a culture of covenants. We have something similar, we have contracts. If we are going to renovate our kitchen, we will hire a contractor and contractor says it will cost X amount of dollars to renovate your kitchen and let’s say the person renovates your kitchen but gives you an invoice that is 33% higher than the quote he originally gave you. You’ll contest it, but unless you have a written contract it’s going to difficult to make your case.

In Abraham’s culture the way they made a contract was not on paper but through a kind of drama that they acted out.

They would cut up the animals and walk between them and say if one of us breaks our side of the covenant let us be cut up and cursed like these animals. Apparently, it was a very effective way for people to keep their covenants. (Most couples don’t choose to use this ancient covenant making ritual when they get married, but back then it was effective).

After Abraham cuts up the animals into pieces, God in the night, symbolized by the blazing torch, passes through pieces of the cut animals. And what God is saying is this: if I fail to fulfill my part of the covenant, let me cut up and cursed like these animals.

God is saying to Abraham, I willing to die to demonstrate my commitment to you.

Typically both sides parties would walk through the cut animals and would invoke a curse on themselves if they failed to keep the terms of the agreement. But it’s interesting that Abraham is not required to walk through the pieces of the cut animals, only God does. It’s as though God is Abraham even if you fail, I will not fail you.

Centuries later, there was another day when darkness and dread fell upon the earth... In fact the dread was so heavy that day became night at noon.

God in Christ hung on a Roman Cross.

What God is saying to us from the cross is this: even though you have broken your covenant with me, I will bear the penalty for your failing to keep your covenant for me, by allowing myself to be cut and crush and cursed so that you can be forgiven and set.

What the cross is that our sins are far more serious than we ever dared imagine, but God’s love for us is far greater than we ever dared hope.

There are times in our journey when we will likely doubt God. It may be during a time of anxiety or loss or may during a time of waiting for something…

During these times when it seems that a dark mist covers the face of God… We have this assurance of God’s commitment to willingness to be cut cursed in order to keep his covenant with us… And in the cross we have the ultimate sign of his love for us.

Let’s say your partner is supposed to be with you at a certain agreed upon hour and they’re half an hour late. If you’ve always known this person to be faithful to you, you’ll likely not conclude this person is having an affair or at this moment gambling away their money playing poker, if the person has always been trustworthy, you’ll say, I don’t what he or she is doing right now… but I will trust something has come up. It could be that he or she is caught in traffic and their cell phone battery has run out. If this person has always been faithful you can trust them even when you don’t know what they’re doing.

So, it is with God there are times when we don’t know what God is doing, why he’s making us wait… but if look to his friendship Abraham which a model of our friendship with God and if look to the cross and remember that God died for us in Christ…
We can with the Paul in Romans 8:32: 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
And we can with Abraham yes, God is my shield and my very great reward.

050403 Encounter

Encounter on the Emmaus Road April 3, 2005

Many of you would know Stephen Toon, a former worship and arts leader here who went with the church plant that recently emerged out of Tenth called Mosaic.
He is a big fan of the Irish rock band U2.
Steve recently just stood out in the cold for over 4 hours at GM Place awaiting even just a glimpse of U2 band members.

After a security guard tipped them off he headed over to some loading doors at GM and then 2 guys came out warning him not to rush the truck. The doors opened and out came a black suburban type thing. Steve waved a copy of the recent U2 cd "How to Dismantle an Atomic bomb" and his pen.

Bono rolled down his window and said, "How's everyone?"

Steve said, “This is so awesome.” He walked up, shook Bono’s hand and got 2 autographs.

Steve through the tip of a security guard was able to anticipate where Bono might show up.

In our text today we get a clue to the kind of place where Jesus, the greatest one of all time and eternity, might show up in our lives.

Ultimately, the revelation of Jesus depends on the sovereign work and will of God as we see in our text, but there are places where Jesus has a tendency to appear and we’ll seek to identify these on this first Sunday after Easter.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 24:

13That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him.
17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?"
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
19"What things?" Jesus asked.
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. 22Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."
25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?" 27Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.
28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. 31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
It’s been just 3 days since Jesus was crucified and two people, likely friends or perhaps a couple, are depressed because the one they had put their hope in has been executed and so they’re leaving Jerusalem.
They faces look sad, as though they had just lost a close friend.
They’re talking and walking on their way to Emmaus—which means warm springs.
It may be that they are going to the equivalent of our Harrison Hot Springs to sit in some warm water to rejuvenate their bodies and revive their spirits.
Pastor and author Frederick Buechner says that Emmaus was NOT so much a place but a state of mind. A place of mind to escape from pain, loneliness, sorrow, bewilderment, and grief.
The road to Emmaus is the place we want to escape whether it is our job, our school, our family, the people in our lives, or horrible feeling of the loss of something or someone.
It’s as these two are going (as someone has said) on a “power-walk to nowhere” that Jesus joins them on their journey.
In moments of loss, Jesus can come powerfully into our lives.
The Psalmist tells that God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
Isaiah tells us that in the year King Uzziah died, i.e in a time of national grief, mourning and loss, Isaiah said I saw the Lord, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah has a deep encounter with God in a time of loss.
I know in my life, there have been times of dark desolation where God has deeply met me…
A number of years ago, in the wake of romantic relationship break up, I sunk into a deep, dark hole. I had had the habit of running each morning, but in this season, I had difficultly getting out of bed in the morning.
God did NOT immediately remove the depression, but there were moments in that valley where he met me in a way that was so sweet that it eclipsed even the pain of the break up…
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the perceptive Jewish writer on the Christian faith, shared about a young man complaining to him about his doubts about God’s existence. He said as a youth I grew up a very religious family, I never had doubts about God, now as a university student I am experiencing pain and doubt. The young man asked Rabbi Heschel, “How can I find the God of my youth?”
And the Rabbi Heschel answered and what makes you think “God wanted your former peace and not your present pain?”
There are times when God allows pain into our life because he wants to meet us there in a new and living way.
Sometimes we think that the only place we could really meet God is in a church, a temple, a time of meditation or while viewing a sunset, the Northern Lights, or a shooting star and he certainly meet us in all these things, but he also meets us in our pain and desolation on our ordinary and extraordinary disappointments.
The text them tells us that Jesus enters into a discussion with them.
18Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, "Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn't heard what's happened during the last few days?"
The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. 20Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. 21And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. 22But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb 23and couldn't find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 24Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn't see Jesus."
25Then he said to them, "So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can't you simply believe all that the prophets said? 26Don't you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?" 27Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
As Jesus walks with these me, he shows them how Scriptures points to a Messiah who will suffer and only then enter glory…

We can meet God in the ordinary pain of our lives, we can also meet God through His Word. The Word of God in Scripture, CAN lead us into an encounter with Jesus Christ…
It’s possible, however, to study the Scriptures diligently and to not experience God. Jesus once to a group of highly religious people, 39"You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
It’s possible to even what Christians call “quiet time” which typically a time in the Bible and in pray in the morning or evening and NOT have an encounter with the Bible, but not with God.

The respected British minister, the Rev. John R. W. Stott points out a way some Christians approach the Bible.

He says some people are like a person who goes to the doctor because of some ailment they have and the doctor writes out a prescription for the medication and instead using the prescription to get the medication, the patient eats the prescription!

The prescription is the not the end! The prescription is very important, but it’s means to get to the medicine.

In the same way studying the Bible is very important, but it’s not an end in and of itself, we study and reflect on Bible as a bridge to bring us to God and to Jesus Christ.

The primary purpose we gather on Sundays is not so learn more about the Bible or to get a bit inspiration for living or self-help, but we sing, we give, we come to Word and table in order to meet the living God.

And Jesus on the Emmaus road shows how all Scripture pointed to him.

As they meet living God through the teaching of Scripture and they later said to each other in vs. 32 "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"

When we meet God, there are times when we will experience some of kind of sensation.

John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church struggled spiritually as a young man. When he was 34 on the evening of May 14, 1738 John Wesley reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 pm while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, he said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Last week during Hanako-san’s baptism she shared about how one of the members of her small group had recently prayed for her. She said I sensed the presence of God in front of me… I felt the warmth of a… mysterious presence…

When we meet God, we may not have a feeling of the burning heart that these 2 people or the warm presence that Wesley and Hanako-san felt, but at some point we’ll likely experience something deep within us: peace, gratitude, joy… or the quiet, but real sense of assurance that God is with us.

After these 2 people and Jesus have talked at some length and Jesus acts as if he is going to go further, but the two men invite him to stay….

In this apparently simple act of hospitality, they experience the presence God through the person of Jesus more fully.

The book of Hebrews (13:2) we’re told that in showing hospitality to strangers, we may in fact be entertaining angels…

There are times when through hospitality or through a connection with people God mediates his presence to us.

Thomas Merton one the great spiritual giants of the 20th century in his spiritual autobiography The 7 Story Mountain talks about how when he was 11 years old, he stayed with a couple of who worked on a farm. Mr. Privat was about 5 foot 3 or 5 foot 4 broad body and no neck… Mrs. Privat was a small and frail like a bird. They were very simple, ordinary people who did common, ordinary work, but the supernatural presence of God was in them. Thomas Merton doesn’t “convert” until he’s in his twenties; but he says he owes his conversion to the grace and love and sincerity of these simple people—whom he’ll thank in heaven.

Hanako-san who was baptized here last Sunday. None of her family is Christian, but when was twelve years old she attended a Catholic School in Japan. One of the nuns taught her to pray when she had problems and to gives thank God when things went well. 2-3 years ago she came to Vancouver and “coincidently” ended up staying with a Christian couple during her homestay: Marku and Leah. She met Choji and friends in a small group Bible study he introduced her to… and each of these people mediated something of the reality of God to her.

It’s often in the presence of another person we experience the presence of God.

This is part of the reason why hospitality is considered such an important practice in the Bible.

In their home, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and the eyes of these 2 people are opened and they recognize that it is Jesus who is seated before them.

Some commentators argue that Jesus is leading this people in the Lord’s supper. But these 2 people would not likely have been present when Jesus instituted what we call the “Lord’s Supper” about 4 days before. Perhaps they were part of crowd when Jesus miraculously feed the multitude with 5 barley buns and 2 fish and saw him give thanks and break the bread.

Though this meal is probably not the Lord’s Supper, as we break bread with God over the Lord’s Supper… we often meet God in a profound and significant way….

Jesus said in John 6 that unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me. Part of way we feed on Christ is through the Lord’s Supper.

The eucharist is another word for what we call the Lord’s Supper, means the “good, grace” (eu means “good”, charis means “grace”). Through the Lord’s Supper we receive the good grace of God’s presence.

Professor Robert Webber teaches theology at Wheaton College. He will have students come to him with various problems: inner pain and conflicts, etc. Professor Webber says I’m a teacher, I’m not a counselor or a therapist and I don’t have the tools to help you.

But this is what I would say to you--flee to the Lord’s Supper, get there as fast as you can, because there is healing there… Professor Webber says many of his students have affirmed that God meet them through the eucharist and that they have been touched by God.

God meets in the loss, in Scripture, in people, and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper…

Let us meet him now… over the Lord’s Supper…

On the Jesus was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said… this is my body broken for you…