tell me it's okay / if you fix everything

'cause i let go

A sermon on the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea:

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my dad built a deck off the back of our house. Cody and I watched, and sometimes got to help. I remember waking up early with Dad one Saturday morning to go to the lumberyard to help get the wood for the deck. 

It was there that I first learned how to look for the choice lumber…

Well, I have a confession I suspect will surprise no one; other than the really obvious tells, I can’t really remember what constitutes choice lumber… 

BUT, I have retained the lesson that not all building material is created equal.

…Of course, the children’s morality tale, “The Three Little Pigs” teaches that much.

Now, you all probably have better illustrations, but you’re stuck with my limited repartee. 

So my point is, we all know not all building material is created equal. And when it comes to construction, you only want the best, the choice materials. Otherwise, it may not hold up…

And it’s not just with construction, is it? Life works the way, too. Doesn’t it?

*Didn’t Jesus tell a parable about that?

So then, if YOU were to take stock of the state of your life; how would you grade the material you’ve chosen to build with?

Anyone here want to confess that they’ve used shoddy material?

Is there something you’ve been building your life on, that hasn’t quite able to bear the load of life?

I know I have…

Reading the account my pension is in, I’m not exactly tempted to think that will be able to provide in my later years. Noticing the new stiffness I’ve begun waking up with, I’ve started to suspect my youth might fail me. 

And that’s not to say anything of the marks I stressed over earning in seminary, that no one gives a rip about anymore!

All these things I thought I could build a future on, and one way or another, they’ve failed to hold together the life I’m living right now!

And I’m not the only one. Am I?

It’s a universal experience. Isn’t it? Those things we hope will deliver us, and the pain and disappointment that come when they inevitably fail to hold up. 

Don’t you suppose that’s how the Israelites felt?

After they boldly left Egypt. Only to come to a standstill with an imposing sea in front of them and the Egyptian army pursuing them them from behind!

…Mere hours before they had left as victors. 

Under Moses’ leadership they had carried the day. Begrudgingly, Pharaoh granted them leave. And confidently they marched out. *The King James puts it well, “the children of Israel went out with an high hand.”

Only, when they turned back they saw the army of Egypt on their tail!

Before they could ride off into the sunset, their day in the sun was over! 

As far as the children of Israel could see, the jig was up before it even began.

Only, and we know this, before the Egyptians could get the Israelites, God did!

God took the sea that would trap the Israelites, and built a wall out of it! A wall to keep the children of Israel safe as they walked through the sea. A wall to deliver them from the hand of their enemy!

We know this is how the story turns out. Don’t we?

For one thing, it’s a well known story… *I suspect some of you are conjuring images of Charlton Heston leading the Israelites through the sea…

But that’s not the only reason we know how this story turns out.

No, we know how the story ends because this is how God works over and over again. 

This is what God does; takes OUR disaster and builds salvation and deliverance from them! 

Isn’t that finally what the cross is all about? How God took that tool of death and made life eternal!

This is the way God builds! 

The choice lumber in the Kingdom of God is disasters and death!

Didn’t Jesus say as much himself? How he came not to call the righteous, BUT the sinners!

This is how God works! We’ve been told over and over. 

And, to some extent, we know it. 

The only trouble is, though, it’s not so easy for us to TRUST. Is it?

There’s a large gap between our head and our hearts, isn’t there?

We’ve heard over and over again how God uses disasters to build salvation. Only we, like the Israelites, think God is going to build on our successes.

And so when our successes fail, and they do; we FAIL to see what God is up to! We wonder, like the Israelites, why God has left us in the lurch.

BUT just like at the Red Sea and the empty tomb, what God is doing, is taking those disasters and making deliverance out of them!

This is how God works!

What does God use to the build the wall that protects that Israelites? Water!

The water that would be their dead end! The water that symbolizes the chaos of life. BUT that is what God uses to build their deliverance!

And what does God use to make resurrection? The cross. The cross that would be the dead end. The cross that symbolizes all that would do us in. BUT that is what God uses to build life eternal!

This chaos and death, the material the world can’t wait to toss aside, is the choice lumber God chooses every time!

I remember, in college, when the plan I had for my life was falling apart; I couldn’t see what God was doing. The way God was taking those waters of chaos and building a call for me. 

I remember, as college was wrapping up and my poor choices were catching up with me; I couldn’t see what God was up to. The way God was taking the death of my future and putting the words that would create a new life from that, into the mouth of my preacher. 

And the list could go on, couldn’t it? The list of times I’ve failed here. The nights I couldn’t sleep because my mind was racing trying to make sense of all the chaos around us. 

And YOU all have your own list, too. Don’t you?

And yet, amidst it all, God has been busy building salvation!

This is why we call ourselves Theologians of the Cross; because the way God has chosen to work with us over and over again, has not been through glory, but the cross!

The choice lumber in the kingdom of God is not our success! 

In fact, it’s the opposite! It’s our disasters. Our failures. And even our death. Our crosses!

This is a hard message, a counter-intuitive one. 

But in the end it’s a Good message!

Because, let’s be honest, our successes are hard to come by, aren’t they? But what we have plenty of, is disaster and chaos! AND, that’s exactly what God is looking for! 

It’s the kind of lumber the Son of God chooses every time!

The Good News is, it’s what we have more than enough of, that God uses to build salvation! 

We already have everything God needs to build salvation!

So, if when I was looking for confession from folks who’ve built with shoddy material, you nearly raised your hand, listen up:

God is building your deliverance. This day even! 

And all you only have to keep still!

God is using what you’d never expect to build your future. Not your successes, but your failures!

As St. Paul, who knew a thing or two about failure, once said; the power of God is made perfect in weakness! 

When you are weakest, God is strongest! When all your have is a pile of death and disaster, God sees everything needed to build God’s best work; deliverance, salvation, resurrection and new life!

You have a God who delights in using lumber the rest of the world would throw away! The chaos and even death of life. 

So you, be still. See the deliverance your Lord will accomplish for you today. 

If you don’t know where to look, look no further than the disaster, the chaos that drove you here.