Where Hope is Found
Isaiah 40:21-31
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
February 5, 2006
Rev. Sandy Messick

• Are you getting tired? There is a weariness afoot, people are tired. Tired of change, tired of uncertainty, tired of insecurity.
• The world is uncertain, what you count on one day will be different the next.
• Relationships are uncertain, who can tell who will last and who won’t, and forever’s a mighty long time.
• Life is uncertain, driving comfortably along and without warning you hit a bump, is it cancer? A job change? The death of a friend?
• We’re getting tired of uncertainty, and then we come to church. And here it is again. Change, uncertainty, insecurity. The lament is heard more often than we think, “I just want to come and worship God, is that too much to ask?”
• I have a friend who once summed up her goals in life. The three things she longed for were safety, stability, and security. The three s’s she called them. And oh what she would sacrifice to get it.

And oh, what we’ll sacrifice to get it.

• Osama bin Laden releases a new videotape, the government warns of unspecified possible threats, the threat level is raised, and we trade our civil rights, our right to privacy, our right to illegal searches and seizures, all in the name of security.
• Our relationships falter but we hold on for fear of what might happen if we let go. Our heath suffers so we seek out radical cures in the hopes of staying safe. Our future looks uncertain so we turn to whatever drug or substance or spiritual guru promises to make it all better, all in the name of safety.
• Our churches faced with dwindling resources, fewer members, tighter budgets, draw in, cut back, hunker down, hold on tight, all in order to promote stability, stay safe.
• Remember the old Lost in Space television show. “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger…”
• The church out of fear retreats to the safety of the spaceship, and in so doing, loses sight of our mission, that which called us out in the first place.
• Go and make Disciples of all nations
• Seek first the kingdom of God
• Preach good news to the poor,
• It’s not that we’ve forgotten what we’re supposed to be about, it’s just that we’re tired, and afraid, and the old ways of doing things don’t apply, and we just don’t know how to fix things anymore.

• Have you not known? Have you not heard? It really isn’t all about us. It never really was all about us. There is something greater at work here. There is something afoot that is more powerful than the fear that holds us back. More resilient than the fatigue that weighs us down. More determined than the challenges that lay before us. And that One is no less than God, the one who created heaven and earth and continues to create within us and through us.
• And if we are not able, and when we are not able, our God is able.
• Look outward, was it not God who created the galaxies we have not even begun to explore? It takes us years just to get to a nearby planet. All our efforts and dollars spent haven’t begun to scratch the surface of what God has planted out there. Oh yes, our God is able.
• Look inward, was it not God who created you and all of humankind, created from dust and filled with the breath of life? Yet for all our scientific research, for all our general understandings, we still scratch our heads and say, “Well, we don’t know exactly how it works…” We haven’t event scratched the surface of the mysteries of life. Oh yes, Our God is able.
• Look around, at all that could and should be different, all the challenges that confront us within our lives, within our church, within our world. It is easy to be discouraged.
• But we have known, and we have heard – Our God is able, even when we are not. When we grow weary and afraid, our God does not.

• Our hope doesn’t rest on us, which is a very good thing. Our hope doesn’t rest on how smart we are, or how savvy we are, or how all-knowing we are. Our hope is found in a God who flung the stars into space, and yet calls us each by name.
• Because of that, because we know it’s not all about us, because we do believe that God is able when we are not, we are set free from fear, set free to step out in faith, set free to boldly go where only God has dreamed before.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of his sermons, tells the story of Mother Pollard. You’ve probably heard of her, if not her name, something she said. In the midst of the Montgomery bus protest, as this elderly black woman walked instead of rode, someone asked her if she was tired. She replied, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.”
• Dr. King goes on to tell of a conversation he had with her, after a church meeting, at a time when Dr. King was discouraged, tired, and afraid. She met him at the front of the church. “Something is wrong with you,” she said. “You didn’t talk strong tonight.” In an effort to mask his fears, Dr. King replied, “Oh no, nothing is wrong. I’m fine.” But Mother Pollard was no fool. “I knows something is wrong. Is it that we ain’t doing things to please you? Or is it that the white folks is bothering you? I don told you we is with you all the way.” Then her voice became quiet and filled with conviction, “But even if we ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you.”

Even youth shall grow weary, even young ones will fall exhausted, but God gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might God increases their strength. Oh yes, our God is able.

An old saying says,

Fear knocked

Faith answered

No one was there.