St. Timothy's Church

The Third Sunday of Easter

April 18, 2010

“When God Lays us Low”

The Rev. W. Terry Sweeney

Acts 9:1-20

“Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.” V. 8

“When God's at the center of your life you worship. When he's not you worry. Worry is the warning light God has been shoved to the sideline. The moment you put Him back at the center, you will have peace again.” Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, 2002

Let’s pray:

Lord what is from you burn deeply in our hearts; what is from man’s wisdom have us completely forget – Lord, give us the discernment to know the difference. Amen.

Every one of us comes from a family tradition that in numerous and profound ways has formed us into who we are. . . . that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way . . . . it does mean our families for good or bad are a major contributor to personhood.

By that I mean the degree to which we trust people; if we tend to think people are good or bad; if the world is safe or dangerous; if we’re fundamentally people who worry or are pretty happy-go-lucky; if we see things as primarily half-full or half-empty.

Our family of origin has had a huge impact upon us whether we like it or not or have ever given it much thought or not. It just is.

Let me give you an example:

I come from a southern family. A family generationally rooted in Southwest Virginia from well before the Civil War and then later in Western West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. My people were coal miners, railroaders and farmers. One of my distant relatives was the musician for J. E. B. Stuart and in fact lived in Appomattox, down the road from the court house. He is credited with adding the bass string to the banjo. During and after World War II, like many southern families, my family migrated north to find jobs in the factories. My grandfather was almost 40 years old before he was paid a salary, other then when he fought in WWI in France, in US currency – prior to that his pay was given in company script.

Living in the north, they maintained a strong southern heritage which included certain food, and family traditions – a heritage in which I was raised in. A heritage where they might fight like cats-and-dogs among themselves but at the same time were thick as thieves if an outsider wronged someone in the family; they loved their country but distrusted the government; were all democrats; worked hard; didn’t like handouts; believed in God yet avoided organized religion; and believed God had his hand in everything.

When a family member was sick they would fret over them and pray; when someone died they all came together for the wake, and cooked food for days. There was always one aunt who would faint. Another would wail and scream the dead person’s name usually as they carried the casket to the hearse. Occasionally someone would try to crawl into a coffin. We’d always have a graveside service and most definitely would not leave till everyone threw some dirt in the grave and made sure we saw the casket lowered into it and covered.

The we’d go back to the house and sit and eat and talk till everyone was so tired they could hardly stand it. That’s just the way we were in those days – that’s what we did – that was our heritage.

The reason I say this is that there was a deeply instilled, generational ethos passed on from generation to generation that went unspoken but was nonetheless understood as inevitable and unavoidable.

There would be a time when God would lay each of us low - The Baptist preachers, the circuit riders, had preached fiery messages for generations that God laid sinners low and that each of us would have our turn – if not more than once.

That was a foregone conclusion.

Several days ago I glanced over the readings for today and immediately I had the thought that God laid Saul Low – he threw him off his horse – blinded him – led him to the house of a man named Judas where for three days Saul would not eat or drink and sat in the anxiety of a dark world he never knew before.

God laid Saul Low. Zealous – educated – a man with a reputation – clearly on a mission . . . . God laid Saul low.

We’d all agree its God’s prerogative to do as He will – especially since we know how the story turned out and as such we can see why God did what He did.

The problem is that sometimes we may feel that God has laid us low and we don’t see the end to the story nor do we understand why?

I think I was in seventh grade when one of our classmates died of leukemia.

It had been rumored for weeks that she was very sick and on a Monday the principle announced over the school PA system that she had died that weekend. A moment of silence was observed – the chill of the moment gave off the eerie sense that death was a thief.

Had death snatched her while God wasn’t looking?

Had God laid her low or was He complicit in her death – didn’t He have to okay it?

Wasn’t He God after all?

Or was there something else going on? Something glorious that as a seventh grader many of us did not understand!

One of the numerous verses of scripture which have always interested me is 1 Cor. 13.12 which reads in the KJV as, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

The “Now and Then” comparison interests me because it tells me that what I think I know now or what I think I see (as clear as it may be in my minds eye) will be even clearer in what Paul calls “THEN”

In this greatest of all great love chapters Paul is pointing out that differing spiritualities exist between the Corinthian church members – religious trappings like asceticism, knowledge (gnosis) and spiritual languages are quite ordinary – and yes, competing. The place they’ve made the big mistake is forgetting the supreme nature of charitable love.

For at the present time (right now or just now) we look through a looking-glass en ainigmati – literally in a riddle or in a figurative way – but then face-to-face.

Let me explain this - Corinth was well known – famous – for producing excellent bronze mirrors. . . . the issue isn’t seeing poor quality distorted images . . . its more like the difference of seeing a picture of someone verses seeing them in person.

Our present understanding of things of God, as clear as we may think they are, is actually fuzzy compared to the understanding that is yet to come.

The analogy of marriage applies to this – it goes like this . . . . .

Our understanding of scripture; how we understand God’s love; what the sacraments mean; what the purpose of the church is and a thousand more items like these are all seen today as clearly as we are able to in this realm of living and as beautiful and clear and wonderful as we believe we have a grasp of them our current sight will not compare to the vision we’ll have on the day we see Jesus face-to-face.

Today’s Psalm 30 is a snapshot of firm faith and dismay – a salad of up’s and down’s, thank yous’ and how could you’s? listen:

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. 8 To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help." 11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

My dad’s mother – my Grandmother Nanny Jane - was reflecting on her life one day and told me that she had grown up quickly. Both her parents died at young ages. She married at 16 and had given birth to 10 children – 8 of which had survived.

She thought about the hard days of the depression and the CCC camps.

At some point she said that if any of us live .long enough we will know suffering – and heart ache – the term she used was that “God would lay them low”.

This morning there are possibly people here, as small as we are, who may feel “laid low”.

Worry has laid us low.

Financial problems have laid us low.

Work issues – personal stresses – life just gone sour – we feel laid low.

I want to offer one possibility to you this morning and would ask you to consider it:

What if in fact, yes, for some reason God has allowed what ever is going on with you for some purpose of His . . . . . the situation you find yourself in has a purpose beyond the obvious and God is behind it.

You may see this situation a certain way; it may be very troubling and confusing.

You are in the company of Job.

And God is preparing you to see not through a glass darkly, but to see him face-to-face.

The condition you find yourself in is for a purpose – for sure it’s not to harm you – it’s not a sin from God against you – it may be a reprimand – it may hurt and cause grief – I don’t know all of the iterations but I do know this much . . . . .

It’s meant to change you for the better.

I have a friend who owns a playground equipment company in Louisiana. He makes a great living – he has a successful company. Money was plentiful – life was good. He and his 2nd wife and daughter moved to Nashville. He had been a musician for years and his wife was amazingly talented – so they decided to take a shot at recording. After they had been there a while he told me that their daughter – a precious beautiful young lady – had been diagnosed with a form of autism – she had been in and out of a couple of private schools and wasn’t fitting in. He and his wife were devastated – largely because they wondered if their past lives had affected their daughter.

They were sad – depressed – angry – confused. They knew she had shown signs of being quirky but had never suspected autism. . . . .

What’s the point to this? He told me one day that he’s had to learn how to love on a whole new level. To accept her for who she is and believe that God has a plan for her and them as a family.

He may have had to love unconditionally for the very first time.

God laid him and his wife low – to teach them to love in a new way.

I have just been through a year of a series of tests – some of which were very scary for me.

I have wondered why? For what purpose? Is this a rebuke? Is this from God or is God allowing it?

Like my friends in Nashville, the process of relearning and being picked up once being laid low takes time.

It’s done in bits and pieces.

It’s sometimes done in tears and in fear – it’s done in confusion – its done with hope and confidence. . . . there seems to be no one set condition we find ourselves in.

Many of us don’t learn easily – we’re slow – remedial learners.

We’re stubborn – hardheaded – sometimes head strong.

In First Peter 4:19 we find this “Let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.”

A broken marriage.

A spouse who dies.

A lost job or a trusted relationship betrayed.

Goodness, there are more possibilities then I have paper to write on – and all of these could be used by God to lay us low in order to raise us up something new.

I can tell you that over the months I’ve felt laid low I did not always entrust my soul to my faithful creator. . . . I can tell you that I sometimes looked for answers under my own power.

I can tell you that it has exhausted me – left me depressed – and at one point I thought I might not be able to keep going.

My story is similar to our friends in Nashville – as it is a hundred thousand and more stories.

Instead of laying fallow and allowing God to take us by the hand step-by-step, ever so slowly, as He usually does – we all too often make the mistake of racing in our own strength to look for a solution that eases the pain and relieves the tension God places us in.

This actually makes the situation worse and we agonize longer than God otherwise would have intended.

God had a plan and purpose for St. Paul – it included the necessary step of laying him low – to blind him – and place him in a situation that would have scared any of us. God went on to make Paul something new.

That something new came up – it became a new creation that God first laid low.

I’ve been in this situation, more than once. Maybe someone of us are feeling that right now?

“Let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.”

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