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Sermon - Isaiah 12.2-6

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Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

A preacher was into his sermon.  He would stop now and then and ask, "Are you with me?  Are you with me?"  He was still going strong after about 90 minutes and he stopped and asked, "Are you with me?"

One fellow in the back yelled, "We wouldn't be if we could find our way back!"

I assure you that for this Thanksgiving Sunday I shall not preach for ninety minutes.  I won't get us lost.  You shall be able to find your way back.

Today I want to ask the question, "For what shall I give thanks?"  That is probably a question you would like to have answered for yourself.

The challenges of everyday life are unrelenting and there are times when they become too much.  Sometimes we find it is difficult to be thankful.  Then we have the added pressure of the holidays.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!  We are supposed to be happy and merry and thankful, but when circumstances overshadow the expectations of the season, we find that we are even less thankful, even unthankful.

More suicide attempts occur during this season than any other in part because of the sense of failure or loss or missed opportunity or emptiness that many experience during this time.  We not only respond to the expectations and stress of the season, but we also respond to the lack of sunlight and physical exercise that brings us down.  We are taken down during these times physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.

Thanksgiving is not a simple matter at all, you see.  It is rather difficult to be thankful sometimes.  If I give thanks for health and home and food and family, the moment I do, I remember that there are those who are sick and homeless and hungry and alone.  We feel a sense of guilt when we come to this season when we find we are giving thanks for things others do not have.  When we analyze the situation psychologically, we are giving thanks because we have something and we know that either there was a chance that we would not have had it or can lose it, or that there are those who do not have what we do.

If I give thanks for opportunity and security and freedom, I fall into the same trap because there are those persons who are denied those things.  So, Thanksgiving usually falls into expressing gratitude for things that I have.  Unless I stop and think, I often don't realize that I am giving thanks for what someone else does not have.

To be truly thankful, though, is not a statement of what we have in a material way, or what we possess.  To be truly thankful is to say that we believe that there are things in this world that are good and positive.  There are things worth having.

To be truly thankful also means that I recognize that I am responsible to someone or something somewhere for these good and positive things.  After all, to whom do we give thanks?

Thanksgiving is a spirit or attitude of life.  We give thanks to something outside ourselves and beyond ourselves and by whom we are responsible for these things we are given.

So I hope my Thanksgiving will not center on appreciation for good luck in life.  I hope my Thanksgiving will not be given in order to insure that the good things keep coming.  I hope Thanksgiving will cause me to look at a dimension beyond things, and I will feel the presence of that which is holy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson summarized the feeling of the presence of the holy when he wrote, "Great persons are those who see that the spiritual is mightier than the material force."

In order to have that kind of attitude in our Thanksgiving I want to suggest three ideas:

1. Thank God things are no worse than they are.
2. Thank God we still know the way home.
3. Thank God that He has matched us a against this time.

I would ask us to look at this time of Thanksgiving first in terms of a statement by King George III of England.  If you remember your American history, George III was the king of England during the American Revolution.  The British had lost their American colonies, their economy was in a wreck.  The King ordered a day of national thanksgiving.  One of his advisers asked why.  The king said, "Thank God things are no worse than they are."

Let me tell you, that is a good reason for thanksgiving.  We are in a war.  We have some economic challenges.  There are assaults against morality and challenges to the Church and this church.  Thank God things are no worse than they are.

There are two stories.  One is about a relative of Andrew Carnegie.  This relative was left with one million dollars by Carnegie in his will, but the relative cursed his memory because, he said, "Andy left $365 million to charity and left me a lousy one million!"  Now that is one way to look at things.

The other story is about a man in Braden, Mississippi.  A tornado had come through the community around Thanksgiving time.  He said, "I am really thankful.  My house was blown away, but I found my refrigerator and the Thanksgiving turkey was still in it.  It will be a good Thanksgiving."

Thank God things are no worse than they are.  One guy complains about a million dollars, and the other guy is happy is turkey is still there.

Thanksgiving is a perspective on life.  It is a spiritual matter.  It is a matter of being thankful to someone or something beyond us to whom we are responsible.  No matter how bad thing get, nothing can rob me of the faith that views all things in the context of God's love for me and His provision of the best life for me.

What if I do have very little?  What if I do have less than I had?  Certainly I speak from a perspective of not having to suffer very much compared to most people in this world.  Whatever my circumstances I can still have a spirit that no one can erode unless I allow it to be eroded.

Thank God things are not worse than they are.

Next I go from King George III of England to Edgar Greer of Meade County, Kentucky.  You can see I am pulling out all the stops this morning.  Dad always told this story about Edgar.

One day Edgar's wife said to him, "Edgar, there's and old Tom cat hanging around here.  It is keeping me awake at night.  I want you to get rid of it."

So Edgar took the cat about two miles out and dropped him.  The cat beat Edgar home.  Three different times Edgar took that cat out and dropped him.  Each time he would take the cat a longer distance.  Each time the cat beat him back.

Finally, Edgar said, 'I am going to take that cat so far that he will never get back."  He was gone all day and all night.  He came in late the next morning covered with mud and brambles, scratched and bruised.

His wife said, "Edgar, did you lose the cat?"

Ed said, "No!  And thank God for the cat!  I had to follow him home."

For lack of a better way to say it.  Thank God for the cat.  The cat knows the way home.

I am thankful that as difficult or challenging that things seem to be; as we gradually seem to be separating God from all of our society; and as confusing as life seems to be; there are still those among us who know that know the way home.  Maybe you are one of them.

Some among us - in our church, our family, our community - know where the foundation is.  No matter how blurred things become we still know that truth is preferable to lies, that privilege implies responsibility, that love is always superior to hatred, that integrity is nobler than expediency, that purity is more admirable than pornography, that home and church is still the nurturing place of the character.

About a century ago when our nation was facing challenges similar to today's, a truly great Episcopal bishop, Phillips Brooks, said, "Things are shaking, so they say.  I say, 'let them shake.  And let us see what remains when the shaking is done.'"

I would say the same thing to us today.  People tell me that things are challenging.  Things are changing.  We live in shaky times.  I say, let them shake, and let us see what remains when the shaking is done. 

Thank God for the cat.  The cat knows the way home.  Francis Shaffer, the theologian, wrote, "There is no way to have real morals without a moral absolute.  Without an absolute - without God - morals cease to exist.  We still know where to find these things.  We still know where home is.  For that I give thanks."

Thank God things are no worse.  Thank God for the cat.

Last, let me quote a statement from Anthony Eden.  Eden was in the British cabinet in the opening days of the Second World War.  It was a time of gloom and disaster and battle losses that were tremendous.  In the midst of one cabinet meeting, Eden said, "I thank God that He has seen fit to match us against this time."

Rather than to see the negatives of our time, let us give thanks that we live in such exciting days and that you and I are called to match these times - the most exciting times in history.  Thank God that He has seen fit to match us against this hour.

There is too much tendency to feel that circumstances are fearful rather than challenging - even in our personal lives.

Let me make an observation as an aside.  You and I are going to face all kinds of struggles in our personal lives that are overwhelming at times.  But allow me to remind us that this struggle in itself is a complement.  You and I have been chosen to match these times and you and I can do it.  We can do it as individuals, as families, as a church, and as a nation.

Winston Churchill was speaking in 1941 during World War Two when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain.  By this time his country had almost been brought to its knees.  This is what he said, "Do not let us speak of darker days, let us instead speak of sterner days.  These are not dark days, these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever seen - and we must thank God that we have been allowed to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of the human race."

We have a lot for which to be thankful.  Thank God that things are no worse than they are.  Thank God that we still know the way home.  Thank God that He has matched us against this moment in history - in our own lives and in our nation.

Before circumstances, hardship, difficulties get to you; let God get to you.  And you will be able to say with the prophet Isaiah, "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song."

In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted."

Sermon - Isaiah 43.6-11

This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. 

A young soldier had completed basic training and wanted to join the Airborne.  He went to Jump School to learn how to parachute out of an airplane.  He went through all of the classes on the ground and was ready to make his first jump from an airplane.  His instructor gave him some final words:  "When you jump, count to three and pull the big handle in front of you.  The main chute will deploy; you will land; and a little red truck will come to pick you up.  If that fails, pull the emergency handle and the emergency chute will deploy; you will land; and the little red truck will come to pick you up."

The young soldier went up in the airplane.  He jumped out and counted to three.  He pulled the big handle and nothing happened.  He pulled the emergency handle and nothing happened.  "Great," he said, "I bet that little red truck won't be there either."

Can things get much worse?

I can't seem to get that question out of my mind.  I am concerned.

I tend to be a positive person, but it is hard sometimes.  We have all been there.  It may be we feel that way because of problems in the world or personal problems.

Can things get much worse?  I hope not.

In times when we feel that things cannot get much worse, we need a word from God.    What can God tell us when we think things cannot get much worse?  Can God bet me looking forward again?  I don't want God to just give me a word to make me feel good.  I want God to give me a word that will get me looking forward and moving forward.  I want to look forward to a future which is worthy of my faith.

God gives us this word in the Book of Isaiah.  Today's passage comes from a section of Isaiah often call Second Isaiah because it differs in context and theme form the first part of the book.  The prophet speaks Gods message at a time when things can't get much worse for his people.

The prophet speaks at the beginning of the sixth century before the birth of Christ.  Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonian Army.  This was a shattering disaster.  The Temple was leveled.  The city was destroyed and all the towns around were in ruins and abandoned.  The country ceased to exist as a political entity and became a province of the Babylonian Empire.  The leaders and the middle and upper classes were taken from the land and put into exile in other parts of the empire.

Things could not get much worse.  We read of their mood in Psalm 137:  "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?"

In the midst of this failure the prophet spoke God's word.  Don't think about the past.  I am creating something new.  There it is.  Do you see it?

There was something that gave life to these people of God.  They were defeated militarily, politically, economically, and personally.  They had been transported to a foreign country.  They certainly could have said, "God is dead."

But this community of exiles - the remnant of God's people - was able to do what no other group was able to do.  They were the only people to survive the upheavals of that time in the Middle East.

There was something that gave life to these people of God.  How could they do it?  For two and a half centuries their history was nothing but a downward slide of defeats and disasters, and now things could not get much worse.

They not only survived and kept the faith - their faith grew!  Some of the greatest religious thoughts, writings and developments of the Old Testament come from this time.

How could they do it?  They could do it because of their God.  I am creating something new.  There it is.  Do you see it?  I made them my own nation, so they would praise me.

They could look forward.  God would save them.  And because of this coming salvation, they were a changed people.  When things can't get much worse, look forward - God saves.

What in God's name are we to do?  When things can't get any worse, we are to raise God's standard.  We are to set the example of holy living.  We are to proclaim the Good News of life in Christ.

Sermon - Isaiah 55.6-7

At the age of 24 Rev. Francis Asbury, an Anglican priest, came to America.  In the days prior to the America Revolution John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement, sought preachers to send from England to the colonies.  Francis Asbury volunteered.

The small Methodist movement in the colonies had a great need.  The Methodists in the American colonies depended upon untrained and unordained preachers for leadership.  They depended upon the priests in the Church of England for baptisms and communion and other rituals.  But these Anglican priests were being driven home by the tense political climate of the days before the Revolution.

The Methodist movement in America requred a great leader - one who could reach both rich and poor, slave and free, ritualist and enthusaist.  When John Wesley asked for someone to go from England to take responsibility for bringing scriptural holiness to the colonies, Francis Asbury stepped forward.

During his life he rode more than 270,000 miles on horseback, preached 17,000 sermons, and ordained 4,000 ministers.  He could preach by the glow of a campfire to rough frontiersmen, or preach in the stately Methodist churches in Baltimore.  he was one of the first Methodist bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church, that later became the United Methodist Church.

Francis Asbury found 600 members of the Methodist societies when he came to America.  At his death there were 200,000.

The life he lived was fabulous in all respects - beauty, danger, spiritual glory, and adventure.  He had brushes with Indians, preached to rough frontiersmen, rode the lonely circuits, and organized churches.  Asbury made his way through pathless forests, swam rivers, encountered storms, endured heat and cold, and at the end of a hard day often had to sleep in a tree or curled in front of a campfire.

Asbury writes of one of the few times he could sleep indoors during his travels:  "The house is 20 by 16 feet; there are 7 beds and 16 persons therein, and noisy children.  I dwell among thorns."

Why did he do it?  In his own words, he writes, "I have done it for souls; if I had done it for silver, there is not enough in the new world to pay me."

Is it any wonder that the favorite scripture of this man was Isaiah 55.6-7?  He preached on it often.

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

This is the scripture of a man who was eager for others to find God.  It pleads with urgency for commitment.

Today, let us allow Francis Asbury to preach to us.  We can imagine what he would tell us this morning.  We can imagine him standing before us in his black suit, long hair tied back, speaking loudly and urgently to us in his thick English accent.  He would share with us his favorite verse.

"Seek the Lord whhile He may be found, while He is near."  Is it possible that at sometime God may not be found?  Will God hide himself from us?  These words lead us to think that it is God who strays from us; but on the contrary, it is we who stray from God.  There may come a time when we no longer want to find God.

How does this happen?  It may happen by atrophy.  Just as a person can loose all feeling in his nerves so that he can no longer feel hot or cold; so can a person lose all feeling in his spirit so that he can no longer distinguish good and evil.

Or it may be by erosion.  This is the gradual wearing away of the soul.  A good example of this is the way in which our culture has allowed the steady decline in moral values.  Through the pressure of groups, movies, television, newspapers, radio, pornography, and so on we are now conditioned to accept perversions, moral aberations, and obvious sin.  We zealously purge all religion from education and yet open the classroom to all kinds of strange suggestions in the name of human rights.

Not only may we be separated from God by atrophy and erosion, but by moral fatigue.  We become too tired to fight.  The world's evil is so wide, so subtle, so persistent that we surrender because we are too tired to fight.  Before a person reaches the age of 18 he or she will have seen 120,000 acts of violence and 13,000 murders on TV.  We spend more time watching TV than we do in school or in church.  But how do you fight it?  Most of us just give up.  And our inaction may very well separate us from God in that we become embarrassed to stand before God because we did not stand for God.  We did not fight back.

Finally, we may be separated from God by losing sight of the vision or the great purpose of life.  I may forget that I am a part of God's purpose and may think my efforts to be too small to matter.  Let us not lose sight of fulfilling God's purpose in Creation.

By atrophy, erosion, moral fatigue, or loss of vision I may be separated from God.  But we do not want separation from God.  We are here today because we want to draw near to God.  How do we do that?

The scripture continues: "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord."  This is what must be done.  It is we who have moved from God.  We must return.  God does not move in the sense that He does not change the rules or lower the standards.  We must decide to return.  And we must decide while God is near - while we have not yet gone too far from God.  We must decide now.

The blinding light of the Damascus Road would have never come to Paul again if he had not repented then.  The burning bush would not have appeared again to Moses if he had not turned to see it then.  The call to Isaiah to be a prophet would not have come again to Isaiah if he had not then said, "Here I am, send me!"

We are called now.  We must decide now before we have gone too far to hear the call again.  And what do we decide?  The scripture says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord."  We decide to forsake wickedness, unrighteousness, and evil.  We decide to repent and to return to God.  We say, "God, I do not want this other power in my life.  I want you."

This scripture calls for repentance.  But don't stop there.  Many people throughout their lives agonize over their wickedness, sins, transgressions.  They never get beyond repentance.  But the scripture in Isaiah continues:  "The Lord will have mercy.  Our God will abundantly pardon."

If we are open to God's love, then God will renew our lives as they should be.  Our effort is to repent.  God's effort is to have mercy and pardon.  We receive God's mercy thorugh faith in Jesus.  in Jesus our sin dies and our lives are resurrected.  We are born anew.  We need not continue mourning or feeling guilty.  God will have mercy.  God will abundantly pardon.

Is it any wonder that Francis Asbury was on fire for the Good News?  Is it any wonder that this great preacher carried in his heart this wonder passage from Isaiah?

Asbury began his adult life as a blacksmith.  But soon he came to preach in the Methodist societies of England.  In order to go to America, Asbury had to leave his sweetheart, Nancy Brookes.  Due to a mix up, Asbury was unable to see her before he left for America.  He never was to see her, but he treasured the memory of her all of his life and never married for always loving her.

He worked hard establishing the Methodist movement in America.  The Unnited States government lists Asbury as one of the 66 greatest Americans.  There is a statue of him in our nation's capital.

He traveled throughout Kentucky.  No doubt he traveled in the territory that eventually became our land.

On March 24, 1816, Bishop Francis Asbury preached in the Methodist Church at Richmond, Kentucky.  He was 71.  He had to be carred from his carriage to the pulpit and be seated on a table in order for him to hold himself upright.  It is said he preached for an hour with great feeling.  I would imagine that he used Isaiah 55.6-7 as his text.

On the next Sunday he died.  As he breathed his last, one of his ministers asked him the question that the old Methodists used to ask each other, "Do you find the Lord Jesus Christ to be precious?"

Asbury could not speak, but summoned his strength to raise both of his hands as a sign of victory.  He still carried in his heart his favorite scripture, the one he would share with you if he were here.

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

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Isaiah 21.6-11 - Sermon and Worship

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Isaiah 6.1-8 - Sermon and Worship

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