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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Community Trusts the Word Luke 1: 39-80

How do you trust God on the hard days? The days when nothing seems to be going right? When you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, burn your toast, and the car won’t start? When you step in a mud puddle, get yelled at by your boss, and miss an important phone call? How do you trust God in the midst of uncertainty and things are spiraling out of control? When you get the news you didn’t want to hear from the doctor or their just isn’t enough money in the bank to pay the bills.
For many of us, we find it easier to trust God when things are going well. When we don’t really need to think about it. But according to Enuma Okoro, “Trusting God is a daily discipline that cannot be dependent upon how we feel”. Sometimes we need those trying times to remind us that disciplines require work and practice. We need to commit ourselves to claiming God’s trustworthiness, even when everything else seems to be falling apart. And it is in those times when we most need the community of Christ to point us beyond ourselves and our circumstances, back to God.
The truth is, scripture is filled with stories of people who are very similar to us - people who take matters into their own hands when they feel that God is moving too slowly or they don’t like how things are going. But if we learned anything this Advent season it is that we need people who will be in the trenches of waiting with us. A community of folks who will help us discern the will of God, wait for God’s timing, and pray for us.
Who are the community of the faithful in your life? Who are the people who will wait it out with you, even when things are at their darkest? Who are the people who will hold you when you cry? Who you can share the longings of your soul with?
I read two very sad statistics this week - the first was that fifty percent of Americans have two or less people that they can confide in. That includes friends and family. It would seem if you have anyone at all who is invested in you, you are above fifty percent of the population. But the other sad statistic was from a Christian leadership book, that reframed the question about having someone to confide in through the lens of Hebrews 3 - a community of people who you meet with regularly, who admonish each other so our hearts are not hardened by sinful deceit. Very few Christian leaders have even one person like this in your life. Because this type of community is not one that you can just have worshipping beside other people on Sunday morning, it has to come by investing in each others lives.
Do you have people like this who you are invested in and who are invested in you? Community doesn’t just happen, it must be nurtured. And as Christians we need at least some people in our community to help us trust God and wait on God’s timing. A word of caution, however. The people in our closest community should not be exactly like us. As the family of God we need to embrace and celebrate our differences and different perspectives. 
In my community I have men and women. People of different ages and races. People of different occupations and education levels. People of many different socioeconomic levels and who live in different places. I have liberals and conservatives, both theologically and politically. I need a community of such diversity so I don’t just get sucked into believing what I want to believe. I need people who know me and are different from me, but above all who will be present with me in the waiting and will seek God with me. 
If anyone knows about the need for a community that waits together, its Mary and Joseph. They know all about not being in control and God’s seemingly inconvenient timing. Upon finding out that she was pregnant, Mary immediately left to seek out community with Elizabeth. And after she returned she had community with Joseph, after God spoke to him in a dream. Mary and Joseph also understand that just because you live in a certain place or worship with a certain group of people, that does not make you a true community. For surely there were people who talked behind their backs. People who tried to talk Joseph out of marrying Mary. People who didn’t wait with them, but instead sought what they believed to be truth instead of God’s Truth.
That’s why true community is so important, because it is seemingly so rare. We all need people who stick it out with us, and who remind us to seek after God’s timing. People who don’t tell us to believe the lie that we are in charge of our own lives or that we can plan everything out.  We need people to remind us to rely on the character of God, God’s order, and God’s sense of timing, even when it is uncomfortable and unpopular. We need people, who remind us, in the words of Enuma, “God’s unpredictability does not stem from a lack of order; we are simply not privy to God’s order”.
We need people who will sit with us in the midst of the uncertainty and encourage us to face our fears. For fear and uncertainty don’t only show up in danger, but also when we are invited to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Do you think Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph had fears? Most certainly! Do you think there were unknowns? Probably every moment of every day! But in their waiting they made a choice to seek after God instead of running the other direction. To be part of the Kingdom plan, even if they didn’t understand it instead of going about their own way. 
These characters in the Advent story have invited us to ask questions about what we believe about God and God’s plan for our lives. If we have a clear sense of who God is? If we know God’s word and keep it in our hearts and on our lips, in both the easy and the trying times? If we can cling to God in the midst of the unknown and if we have a community, steeped in the Word, who will prayerfully wait with us. 
Here’s the truth, brothers and sisters. We cannot, should not, and do not journey through life alone. Don’t buy into the lie that we are in charge of our own lives or that we don’t need other people. We all need community. People who will sit with us in the silence. People who will leap with joy at our good news. People who will slowly go with us, step by step, on the path before us. 
As you examine your life, if you find that you cannot think of anyone who offers this type of authentic community, do not be dismayed. Pray to God to open your eyes and heart to who would be a good spiritual companion for you. Pray for a small group or soul friend of enter your life who will walk this path with you. 
If you did think of a group of people, ask God to help you examine your group of companions. See if they are people who speak God’s truth in your life or people who simply tell you what you want to hear. Ask if you have Christ at the center of your lives together or if the communal story is about someone or something else.
And if after praying you find that you are blessed with a community of authentic Christian companions - praise God. Praise God for this gift and lean on one another, in the good times and the trying times. Wait on the Lord together. Encourage one another. And keep each other from stumbling into sin.

This week our waiting will be over. We will celebrate the birth of Christ through candlelight and carols. With family and friends. But even though our waiting for Christmas is over, many of us are still waiting for other things in our lives. Remember, we do not wait alone. We seek God’s surprises in the silence and uncertainty together. Amen. 

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