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God’s Not Caught by Surprise
Psalm 139:1-18
John 1:43-51

     Everyone kept saying “I hope the year 2021 will be better than this last year!”  I felt that way, didn’t you?  But here we are in the third week of January and things are worse.  Our country is now facing twin crises.  We continue to battle a raging COVID pandemic in every state.  We keep on breaking the latest record for how many of our fellow Americans have died on a given day.  That makes us so sad, but we are also fatigued, so tired of being isolated, wearing masks and limiting where we go.  Our lives feel diminished and put “on hold”.  But we know the dangers are real and we must find ways to persevere.   
      A second crisis shook our nation on January 6th when our capital building was breached and lawmakers hid in fear.  Now we’re in the midst of several high alert days when protests and riots may happen in the capitals of our states and in Washington, D.C. Tumultuous times may well happen on and after the presidential inauguration on January 20th.  Again, these dangers are real and we must find ways to persevere.    
      These two crises are unprecedented - we’ve never had to cope with either one.  It’s normal, then, for us to feel anxious, sad, frustrated, angry, overwhelmed.  But this morning I want to remind us all that God is not dismayed, caught off guard or surprised (as we are) by these crises, or any others.  Our all-knowing God has watched over our world during many other devastating pandemics, on every continent, throughout the millennia.  God’s also watched over many countries where walls were breached and leaders put in peril.   He’s seen divisions widen and viewpoints harden, and the unrest that follows.  
     I’ve found a Christian song week that’s speaking to me as I move through this difficult month of January.  It’s called “You Hold It All Together” and is written and produced by Maverick City Music.
     Do you believe God comes at the right time, that we shouldn’t be surprised when he delivers us – every time?   Has God been with you in your valley just as much as on the mountaintops?  Do you believe God is good and faithful?  Are you confident God’s making a way forward for you and is blessing you in every season of your life?  Is He the God of your present and your future?   In our hands so much can fall apart, but if God is the author of our lives, if we invite Him to write our story, we will not fall apart.   God will hold all things together.
     Earlier we heard the account from John chapter 1 where Jesus said to Philip: “Come and follow me.”  Philip went and found Nathaniel and said with great excitement: “We have found the One (sent by God), Jesus of Nazareth!  Come and see.”  Nathaniel went and spoke to Jesus; he soon made an even bolder declaration “You are the Son of God.”   Soon these men and others would experience how Jesus has the power to, as the song says, “hold all things together”. 
     But what I love and want us to notice here is that Jesus told young Nathaniel, “You’ll see greater things one day. You’ll see heaven open and God’s angels going up to heaven and back down to earth.”  Jesus gave his freshly-found new disciple just a glimpse, a brief peek, at the future and it astounded him, and must have done the same for the others listening in.   Those disciples would endure great hardships in the years to come, but I like to imagine Nathaniel sitting by an evening campfire, poking one of the disciples after a hard day saying “Hey, remember what the Master told me?   I am going to see angels one day.  See the splendor and glory of heaven.  Oh yeah, and so will you!  We’ve just got to get through today’s troubles.  Better times are comin’.”
     When you and I go through painful, miserable troubles, we need to hang on to the same hope Nathaniel experienced.  We too  will one day behold massive choirs of radiant angels.  We’ll see heaven’s brilliance and beauty and be with Jesus on the shores of the wide river that runs through the city of God.  Better still, we’ll have new, whole, perfect bodies.  We’ll enjoy the company of all those who have been blessed to inherit eternal life.  
     So, on your darkest days and on mine, we need to remember the glimpse we get of our future.  We need to believe that God will hold us together so we can persevere though all things, including this awful pandemic and our nation’s current political turmoil.         Another reading we heard today came from Psalm 139.  This was originally written as a song and is one of the most well-loved in the psalms.  It speaks of God as our Creator, knitting us together while in our mother’s womb.  We are marvelously made in God’s image.  God knows when we sit or stand, rest for the night, or travel.  Before we even speak, God knows our thoughts.  Nothing is hidden from God; all the days of our life have been recorded in His book, before we were even born.  And what is woven into all of this is that we can trust our unknown future to our known God!      
     The Psalmist goes on to call us to be filled with praise and thankfulness. We have a good, a benevolent, Father watching over us with love, showing us the best paths to take in life.  He wants to be our guardian and guide if we will trust Him.   My favorite part in this long psalm comes from verse 5, which says “God is before us and behind us”, hemming us in protectively.  Then it goes on to say: “God puts His hand on us.”  That last part was a fresh insight for me.  Have you ever felt like God was so close to you that His hand rested on your shoulder?  Some people have.  But many other times it’s people that are used by God to do that.  Think about times when a parent or friend put a comforting hand on your shoulder, or your hand, so you would feel calm - not worried or so stressed.  And hasn’t a physician put their hand on your wrist to check your pulse or their hand on your forehead to check for a fever?  There can be something practical and helpful in those gestures, and it can simply be kind.  It also connects us. 
      There are times we all can feel alone even when others are around; we can feel restless lying for days on end in a hospital bed or be filled with sadness in a nursing home.  People of all ages need others to reach out and connect with a hug, a gentle touch, or even boisterous high fives and slaps on the back. Such expressions offer encouragement. They can help with healing and restoration, or just make someone feel included rather than excluded.  So, if and when you have the opportunity and God prompts you, be a companion, a comforter offering God’s help and do it in love.  You’ll both be blessed by it.          
      Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this bleak 17th of January 2021, I want to remind you that a better day is coming.  We’ve seen glimpses of it in the pages of Scriptures and through the witness of Christians.  God is in full control of history, waiting for the day and hour when He sends us his Son Jesus once more.  He is “the One” who once lived on earth with us, but this time his mission will be to escort us to the home of the angels and saints who have gone before. They are waiting in heaven - when we arrive there will be homes prepared for us and delights beyond our imagining as we live in God’s Kingdom. 
     But until then, let’s remember these words the Apostle  Pail wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9:  “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.  We are perplexed (filled with uncertainties) but not driven to despair.  Persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  Our hope is not found in this world, but in Jesus Christ!

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